It’s been great to watch the recent resurgence of Flin Flon Bombers forward Chris Rauckman, who is now tied for the league lead with 29 goals scored in 39 games.
He netted three on the weekend and is now tied with Travis Mayan of the Melfort Mustangs.
Mayan is walking away with the league scoring title, and now has 65 points, 15 more than Owen LaClare of the Kindersley Klippers.
Rauckman has certainly been aided by the addition of Brett Boehm. Boehm has set him up for some pretty nice tallies since his arrival, and it is clear that the opposition doesn’t know who to focus on when their line hits the ice.
When the secondary scoring kicks in, this team will be unstoppable.
The Bombers host the Yorkton Terriers for a pair of games at the Whitney Forum this weekend.
After going all the way to the national championship last year, the Terriers are in serious rebuild mode this season and currently find themselves in dead last in the SJHL.
On paper, this should be a dream matchup for the Bombers, who will be looking to rebound after picking up only a single point against the league leading Kindersley Klippers this past weekend.
Although they deserved better, taking points out of Kindersley hasn’t been easy for any team this year. They have only lost three times at home in regulation all season.
Two games at home against the worst team in the league should be welcome, but the Bombers can’t afford to take anyone lightly.
The Terriers were definitely sellers at the January 10 trade deadline, moving out some 20-year-old graduating players in order to rebuild their club.
Yorkton hasn’t won in their last five games, so they will be hungry and desperate when they take to the ice on Friday. They need to win in order to keep pace with Estevan, La Ronge and Humboldt.
Only two of those four teams will make the playoffs, and there are only four points separating the bunch. Only the top 10 teams in the league make the playoffs.
Speaking of playoffs, the SJHL Twitter feed, @theSJHL, had three tweets about the state of things as of Sunday afternoon:
@theSJHL: Most league finals appearances since 2000: Humboldt 7 (5-2), Yorkton 6 (4-2), Weyburn 4 (1-3), Melville 4 (0-4).
@theSJHL: @JrAKlippers have been in the league finals 3 times since 2000, winning twice. @NipawinHawks1 lost in 2001.
@theSJHL: New blood? Top teams @NipawinHawks1, @ndrjahounds, @SJHL_Mustangs and @FFBombers have combined for 1 league final appearance since 2000.
So as you can see, there are a few teams that are due, the Bombers being one of them. They haven’t been to a league final since they won it all in 1992-93. (Not that anyone around here needs to be reminded).
Nipawin made it there in 2001, but they haven’t won since 1989-90. If you think that’s long, the Melville Millionaires have never won a league title, despite their long history in the league.
