It's official: the Sherwood division title will not come back to Flin Flon this year. Melfort clinched that banner after beating the Bombers 5-4 Thursday night.
The Bombers lost their second-last game of the regular season after giving up a 3-1 lead in the second period, allowing three quick markers to Melfort and a third-period winner.
Things started off well for the home team, with Nolan Doell scoring halfway through the first to give Melfort a lead, but the Bombers squirreled back an advantage late, with Xavier Lapointe and Rylan Thiessen both scoring on powerplays late in the first. Flin Flon led 2-1 after 20.
In the second period, the wheels fell off. Jaxon Martens pushed the Bomber lead to 3-1, but Melfort rhymed off three straight goals in five minutes, with Logan Cox, Leyton Holoien and Ben Tkachuk all beating Bomber netminder Cal Schell. The Mustangs had a 4-3 lead going into the third.
Gabriel Shipper tied the game up early in the third, but Holoien took that momentum away, scoring a minute later and giving the Mustangs a lead they wouldn't give up.
The Bomber offence generated only 25 shots on the evening - despite only saving 21 of them, Melfort goalie Joel Favreau got his second win of the week against Flin Flon. Schell made 30 stops in a losing effort. The season series between Flin Flon and Melfort will end in a 4-4 tie this year.
The loss confirms that the Mustangs will win the Sherwood division title, as well as them clinching home ice advantage in the SJHL's final standings - Melfort will either finish third or fourth. The Bombers had won the title in 2017 and 2020, with the Nipawin Hawks taking the crown in the two intervening years. It is the first time Melfort has held the crown since 2016, when they would eventually beat the Bombers in the league finals.
The Bombers have only one game left on the season, against a team now just ahead of them in the standings and their likely first-round playoff opponents - the Battlefords North Stars. The two teams meet on the road Friday night.
The Bombers can still finish fourth in the league and get home-ice advantage in a 4-5 series, but their fate is not entirely in their own hands. If Flin Flon wants any hope of home-ice advantage in their first round series, they will have to beat the Stars Friday, then sit back and hope that the Stars only get one point or less in their last two games - one against non-playoff Kindersley and another against eighth-seeded Notre Dame. A loss against the Stars Friday will guarantee the Bombers fifth place and no home playoff hockey until game three of the first round.
The Bombers, after a strong start to 2022, have recently been in freefall. Since a shock loss to the Nipawin Hawks at home Feb. 15, the Bombers have gone 3-8, only winning against the Hawks twice and once against the Ice Wolves. Before the Feb. 15 loss, the Bombers were third in the league, tops in the Sherwood division and ranked in the CJHL national top 20 team rankings - they've since disappeared from the top three, lost the division title and no longer appear on either the national top 20 list or the honourable mentions.
One SJHL playoff matchup is confirmed. The Estevan Bruins, who finished the season atop the league standings, will play the Notre Dame Hounds, who cannot catch the seventh-place Yorkton Terriers. Humboldt, the second seed, will play either La Ronge or Yorkton.
