The Flin Flon Bombers went into Estevan and took both games at Affinity Place including a 2 to 0 win on Wednesday night and have swept their opening round Quarter Final Series against the Bruins.
Finn Werner turned away all 26 shots he faced for the shutout in his first ever SJHL playoff start. Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan decided to give starter Charlie Tritt the night off and the team never missed a beat.
The Bombers pride themselves on depth and they really proved it with 7 regulars out of the lineup including Ryder Mucha, Maverick Deslilse, Landon Alexander, Keaton Lesperance, Joey Lies, Ryder Knutson and Sam Ward.
This would give some of the other players on the team an opportunity to play and show what they could do in a pressure situation.
One of thos players was Jared Miskiw, who suited up for the first time in the playoffs. His line that included Nathan Lalumiere and AP call up Grant Gliege who were sensational and gave the Bruins trouble every time they were on the ice.
They also provided the games first goal which ended up being the game winner. Lalumiere was behind the Estevan net and was able to feed a pass to Miskiw who tapped a shot between the legs of Bruins starter Dylan Adams late in the second period.
Connor Miller would score a big insurance goal just four minutes later, when he stripped a puck away from an Estevan defender and scored his second of the playoffs into the bottom right corner.
Flin Flon rode the 2 to 0 lead into the third period and had some tremendous chances to seel the game, but couldn't get any more pucks past Dylan Adams who also got some help from a couple of goal posts.
Estevan got a late powerplay and pulled their goalie to go 6 on 4, but the Bombers held their ground and didn't allow the Bruins any goals to get back in the game and held on for the 2 to 0 win and series sweep.
Not only was this Werner's first playoff shutout, but the third time he shut out the Bruins this season with a couple coming in the regular season. Flin Flon out scored Estevan 15 to 5 in the four games.
There were a lot of factors that went into the Bombers winning this series four straight. Estevan could not match the Bombers depth, especially the third and fourth lines who rarely saw the ice for the Bruins. Estevan's top line of Ewen Rennie, Rylan Williams and Cash Olson played a ton and were absolutely gassed by the end of game four.
The Bombers ran four lines evenly and won the special teams battle going 2 for 12 with the extra attacker while not allowing the Bruins any powerplay goals in the four games going a perfect 12 for 12 on the PK.
Flin Flon also played exceptional away from the puck and limited the quality chances in fron of their net. The atmosphere was also incerdible for the first two games in Flin Flon at the Whitney Forum and helped set the tone for the Bombers winning games one and two at home.
Head Coach and GM, Mike Reagan was very excited with the series sweep and shared these comments after game four. " You know when you have 9 defensemen that can play a top 4 role on any team , you feel pretty confident with that back end. I think there are things we have to improve on and I think there are things we learned throughout this series which is great. I think the most important thing for this team is rest, with as many guys that we have had banged up the last couple of months and the toll it has taken on some of the guys that have come back. This will give us roughly 9 days rest before the next series starts in Flin Flon."
The Bombers do not know their opponent as the three other Quarter Final Series are still going, but will have home ice no matter what with Flin Flon being the top seed.
The SJHL Semi Final Series will start in Flin Flon most likely on Friday April the 3rd, but will not be announced officially til the Bombers know who their opponent will be. This will be the fifth straight season for the Bombers in the Semi-Finals, as they keep pushing in trying to bring home the team's first League Championship since 1993.
Tickets for the SJHL Semi Final will start to be sold at the Bomber office next week.
