By Craig Stein
Broncos & Hawks Up 2-1
The Flin Flon Bombers got right back in their Best-of-Seven Quarter-Final with Nipawin, as the series shifted north to the Whitney Forum and the Bombers came away with a 3-2 win over the Hawks in Game 3 on Tuesday night. Nipawin continues to lead the series two games to one.
It was a scoreless first period, and the Bombers never trailed in Game 3. Brandson Hein and Ethan Daniels made it a 2-0 Flin Flon lead in the second period. Brandan Arnold cut it to 2-1 just minutes later. Chrystopher Collin scored the eventual winner on the powerplay 13:14 into the third, before Josh McDougall (1g-1a) made it a one goal game again, rounding out the scoring.
Both of Nipawin’s goals on Tuesday, and all five in their last two games, have been on the powerplay.
Brenden Newton made 28/30 saves in Tuesday’s win, while Declan Hobbs turned away 39/42 in goal for the Hawks.
The Bombers look to tie things up as they host Game 4 on Wednesday. Game 5 is a go, for Friday night in Nipawin.
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The Humboldt Broncos scored three third period goals to break open a 1-1 game with a 4-1 win, while also breaking a 1-1 series tie, taking a 2-1 Best-of-Seven lead over the Melfort Mustangs.
The Broncos made a change in goal, going with Parker Tobin for the first time in the series, and he made 27/28 saves including all 10 he faced in the third period, and helped the Broncos kill all seven Melfort powerplays.
Xavier Labelle, Kaleb Dahlgren, Brayden Camrud and Jaxon Joseph (5th of the series) did the scoring.
Defenseman Tyler Heidt scored for the Mustangs while Evan Plotnik made 23/26 saves.
The Broncos have a shot at a 3-1 series stranglehold with Game 4 on home ice on Wednesday night.
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Powerplays were front and centre on Tuesday, and the Estevan Bruins used theirs to their advantage in a 5-0 romp in Kindersley.
The Bruins were 4/6 while up a man, scoring twice in the first period and three more in the third. They’re now 50% with the man advantage (7/14) in the series.
Jake Fletcher (1g-1a) and Hayden Guilderson scored first period goals, both on the man advantage. Guilderson added another in the third period, finishing with two goals and an assist. Tanner Manz and Arthur Miller also hit the net in the final period. Kaelan Holt and Jake Heerspink each added three assists and Bo Didur made 18 saves for the shutout.
The Bruins go for the clean sweep Wednesday on the road.
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Cole Johnson scored twice, less than two minutes into both the first and second periods, and the Battlefords North Stars took a commanding 3-0 series lead with a 4-1 win in Weyburn.
The Stars scored two empty-net goal to extend the score of an otherwise close game, as Layne Young and MacGregor Sinclair salted it away late.
Joel Gryzbowski made 26/27 saves in the win, while prior to the empty-netters, Weyburn’s Arik Weersink stopped 32/34 shots. Like the rest of the series’ Game 4 goes Wednesday in Weyburn. The Stars have now won 15 consecutive playoff games dating back to their Canalta Cup from a year ago. They’ll go for the series sweep on Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Nipawin @ Flin Flon
(Hawks lead series 2-1)
Melfort @ Humboldt
(Broncos lead series 2-1)
Estevan @ Kindersley
(Bruins lead series 3-0)
Battlefords @ Weyburn
(Stars lead series 3-0)
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