Ladies and gentlemen, the series is going to Game 7.
The Bombers fought back to tie the SJHL championship series in their last game on home ice this year, beating Estevan 6-1 in Game 6 and forcing a winner-take-all Game 7 in Estevan Friday night.
For the second home game in a row, the Bombers took control early and kept their collective foot on the throttle. Both teams threw everything they had at each others' nets in the first period, with both Bomber goalie Cal Schell and Estevan's Boston Bilous standing tall. At one point, the teams exchanged back-to-back breakaways - Keagon Little one way for Estevan and Cole Duperreault for the Bombers soon after, with both stopped in their tracks.
Kylynn Olafson almost opened the scoring with a wraparound, missing paydirt by mere inches, while moments later the Bruins almost cracked the sky with a goal of their own, only for Schell to stop a Bruins shooter at point-blank range.
Other players impressed away from the puck, including Zak Smith, the Bomber captain and shotblocking vortex, who blocked at least three hard point shots during early penalty kills.
Despite the excitement, the score was goose-eggs after 20 minutes. That would end early in the second period, courtesy of Drew Kuzma, who muscled the puck underneath Bilous and into the net. Shortly after, Brett Wieschorster got the Bomber faithful going with his best impression of the famed Double Dion - two big back-to-back hits. Later in the period, he would hit a Bruin player into his own bench, causing quite a stir in the process.
Estevan almost tied the game midway through the period, getting a puck to roll through the crease behind Schell, but Smith would clear it away from the goal line with millimetres to spare. An Estevan penalty from Kade Runke would put the Bombers up one man, where Xavier Lapointe would almost make it 2-0 with a shot that went perfectly top corner on Bilous - while the goal judge turned the red light on, the referee waved the goal off immediately and play continued.
Lapointe, maybe inspired by the near miss, would later score a goal that would stand. After a Bruin collided with Bilous and left the net open, Lapointe fire the puck into an open net, making it 2-0 Bombers.
Smith would almost add to it with a clanger off the crossbar, while Estevan's Eric Pearce was brought into the zone alone after a Lapointe turnover - only for Schell to shut the door.
The Bombers would make it a 3-0 game late in the second, when Duperreault would score a powerplay marker on a goalmouth scramble in the last minute.
Estevan ruined Schell's shutout bid early in the third, with Mark Rumsey redirecting an errant shot past the Bomber goalie to make the game 3-1. The Bruins, who started the third period with an urgency the Bombers were caught off guard by at first, almost brought the game within one when Schell was bumped in the crease and the puck crept close to the net - alas for Bruins fans, the puck stayed out and the referee signaled "no goal".
That was as close as the visitors would get. Jaeden Mercier would beat Bilous clean moments later, making it 4-1 Flin Flon. Estevan coach Jason Tatarnic took an unorthodox risk in the third, pulling Bilous for an extra attacker and leaving the net empty with more than seven minutes left on the clock. That plan quickly backfired, as Jaxon Martens would find the empty net to make it 5-1 Bombers.
The game briefly got physical, as Estevan's Alex von Sprecken and Bomber Lucas Fry angrily exchanged soup recipes and pushed and shoved - both players would be given 10-minute misconducts and sent to the showers.
Late in the third, Smith got tired of blocking shots and decided to fire a few, getting his own rebound in the high slot and flinging it past Bilous, making it 6-1. Estevan would get more physical late, with Matt Millette getting a 10 minute misconduct and, after the final whistle, Damon Byers getting into a confrontation with a linesman that ended with the official physically pushing him towards his own dressing room.
The Bombers would celebrate their win and keep their moose legs away from clutching hands without incident, doing so in front of 1,939 fans - the single largest one-game crowd the Whitney Forum has seen in over two decades. The Forum hasn't been that full since the 2001 RBC Cup, when the Bombers reached the national tournament final on home ice. In the crowd were a smattering of former Bombers who had made the trip north, including former captain Mason Martin.
Schell earned the W with a 33 save performance, while Bilous stopped 37 shots on the night. Mercier, Martens and Smith each finished the night with a goal and an assist for the Bombers.
With the series all tied up at three wins each, a final, do-or-die Game 7 will be played in Estevan's Affinity Place Friday night. The game will start at 7 p.m. Saskatchewan time, 8 p.m. Manitoba time and will be broadcast on Sasktel Max and HockeyTV.
Going into Game 7, the home team has won all six games in the series so far. If Estevan wins Game 7, it will be the team's first league title since 1999. If the Bombers win, it will break one of the SJHL's longest title droughts - only the Melville Millionaires and Notre Dame Hounds have gone longer without a league championship than the Bombers have.
The Bombers haven't won a league title in almost 30 years, picking up their only SJHL championship in 1993 - oddly enough, winning the title on the road in a crucial Game 7 after a raucous series where the home team won every game before the final matchup.
During Game 6, the Bombers suited up without the services of three 2001-born players - defencemen Cole Vardy and Rylan Thiessen and Mason Kaspick. Both Vardy and Kaspick were hurt in Game 5 in Estevan - Thiessen has been out of the lineup since Game 2 against the Bruins.
To help beef up the lineup, the Bombers called in reinforcements, bringing in defenceman Noah Kuntz from Regina. Kuntz played 19 games for the Bombers this year before suffering an injury, then leaving the team to go back home to Regina, recover and enroll at the University of Regina. Once Kuntz recovered, he played out the season with the Regina Silver Foxes junior B squad. Kuntz had been kept on the Bombers' roster as an affiliate player and was called up for a pair of road games in February, but hadn't played a minute at The Zoo since Nov. 12.
