It is the best time of the year if you are an SJHL hockey fan as the playoffs will begin tonight on all four fronts, including the Flin Flon Bombers hooking up with their arch rivals from the South, the Estevan Bruins.
This will be their third playoff meeting since 2022 with the other two series going the max 7 games including their thrilling league final from 2022.
The Bombers enter the playoffs as the top seed after finishing the regular season with the league's best record at 41-11-1-3 including a staggering 27-0-1 at home. Flin Flon was the first SJHL club since 1981-82 to not lose in regulation at home, that is the year the Prince Albert Raiders went 34-0 at home.
Estevan are the 8th seed and didn't qualify for the post season til the second last day of the regular season when they went into Weyburn and beat the Wings 5 to 2. The Bruins finished the year at 26-25-4-1.
The Bruins were decent at home at 17-11 but struggled on the road at 9-14-4-1.
Saying that, Estevan is extremely dangerous offensively with the three of the top forwards in the league including Ewen Rennie who finished second in league scoring with 78 points including 37 goals.
Rennie was also selected the league's top forward and MVP and had a staggering 31 points on the powerplay. He also plays with two pretty good players that he centres a line with including Rylan Williams and Cash Olson who led all rookies in scoring.
Williams came over from the Battleford Stars in a blockbuster trade before the season and ended up with 68 points including 25 goals.
If the Bruins are going to upset the Bombers in the first round, all three of these players will need to have a monster series.
Flin Flon is led offensively by local product Joey Lies who had a breakout season with 54 points including 27 goals and was able to accomplish that by missing 8 games. Lies also led his team in powerplay goals with 14. Reid Arberry was the only other Bomber who ended up in the top 20 in league scoring, and the veteran 20 year old ended up with 51 points in 52 games including 23 goals.
The Bombers as a team finished second in overall scoring with 234 goals for in 56 games , and score by committee with 12 players finishing in double figures in goals and feel they have four deep lines.
That may be one of the biggest differences in this series as Estevan may have a tough time matching their third and fourth lines.
Flon Flon feel they will have the edge in goal with Charlie Tritt the only Bomber to take home a league award as he was awarded the league's top netminder finishing with a record of 23-9-2 and a league best GAA of 2.12 and save % of .934.
Estevan split their duties with Dylan Adams who went 12-15-3 and Nathan Kam who ended up 12-8-1, but it looks like the crease will be Adams at least to start the post season.
Flin Flon took three of the four regular season matchups and shut them out twice.
We all know the playoffs are a different season and I look forward to another great clash between two of the most histroric teams in the country. Games one and two at the Whitney Forum tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm.
The series will shift back to Affinity Place in Estevan next Tuesday and Wednesday with puck drop both nights, 8pm Manitoba time. Every single Flin Flon Bomber playoff game will be broadcast on 102.9 CFAR and flinflononline.com.
