The Flin Flon Bombers clinched the Sherwood division title and stayed second in the league, beating Nipawin 4-3 Friday night.
Despite a slow start and Nipawin taking an early lead, third period pressure and a trio of goals by the Bombers sealed the deal in the end.
Nipawin got on the board first, with Francois-Xavier Bedard sneaking a puck through Harmon Laser-Hume in the opening minutes. The Bombers had a pair of powerplays to work with in the period and both Liam Bridger and Joey Lies had prime opportunities in front, but neither could convert, allowing the visitors to head to the room with a one-goal lead.
Flin Flon got out of the gate fast in the second, but while the team controlled play, the Bombers couldn't produce, either firing long shots on the Hawks' Damon Cunningham or having chances knocked away by defenders. Most of the Bombers' chances were easily kicked aside through most of the first and second periods.
Finally, in the dying seconds of the period, a Lucas Fry point shot bounced up and over Cunningham, with Alexi Sylvestre, the reigning SJHL rookie of the month, knocking it home with 1.8 seconds left on the clock and tying the game going into the third.
It was in the final frame where the Bombers ran away with the game. Five minutes into the period, Carson Dobson and Reid Mackay took concurrent penalties for Nipawin, giving Flin Flon a full two minutes of five-on-three hockey. It took less than one minute for the Bombers to convert, with Ethan Mercer getting a stick on a Noah Houle point shot to give the Bombers the lead. Moments later, another shot would be stopped by Cunningham, but Brent Gulenchyn and Zach Cain both crashed the crease for the rebound, leading to Gulenchyn's stick hacking the puck home.
Flin Flon would add another goal midway through the period, when a weak Nipawin clearing attempt was knocked down by Cain in the Hawks' zone. Cain fed Mercer, who drew Cunningham outside the crease before he fed Lies, coming down the slot, a prime chance. With a net more gaping and wide than Hudbay's open pit in front of him, Lies made no mistake, scoring his fourth goal of the year and his fifth point in his last five games.
Nipawin would try to stage a late comeback, with Tre Fouquette blasting a shot from the point that hit the goalpost, Laser-Hume's back and slowly trickled over the line in to the Bomber net cutting the lead to two. Cain had a prime chance to put the Bombers back up three, with a one-timer near the net, but Cunningham stretched across a wide-open net to rob Cain with a save-of-the-year calibre glove stop.
With Cunningham called to the bench with 2:41 to go, the Hawks would press - Laser-Hume held strong at first, going over a minute in the Bomber zone without his stick but making big saves. With 10 seconds to go, Dobson knocked in a rebound to bring the Hawks to a 4-3 score, giving some Bomber fans pause, but final efforts by the Hawks would be stopped both by Laser-Hume and Fry, who blocked a last-second shot with his body to seal the win.
Cain would add an exclamation point in the final moments by dropping the mitts with the Hawks' Joel Mabin, scoring a decisive takedown and bringing the crowd to their feet. If it wasn't for Cunningham's highway robbery, Cain would have ended the night with a Gordie Howe hat-trick.
Laser-Hume had 29 saves in a winning effort, while Cunningham stopped 37 shots for Nipawin.
The Bombers now have 76 points this season, too far ahead for the Melfort Mustangs to catch up for the top spot in the division. The win also means the Bombers will finish the regular season no lower than third place in the year-end standings.
In those standings, the Bombers needed the win to stay in second place overall - the Humboldt Broncos mounted a third-period offensive to beat Battlefords 6-3, pulling the Broncos back within a point of the Bombers with two games in hand and 75 points on the board.
The Broncos have five games left on the season - a second game against the Stars Saturday, then a home game against Weyburn March 8 before playing their final three games against non-playoff teams in Notre Dame and Yorkton. Meanwhile, the Bombers have three games left to play, each against divisional opponents fighting for home-ice advantage in the first round of the SJHL playoffs - a home game against Melfort March 7, an away game in La Ronge March 10 and a final home game against La Ronge March 11.
