HUMBOLDT — The 2021-22 season is over for the Humboldt Broncos.
The Flin Flon Bombers won Game 5 of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League semifinals 1-0 on April 12. They won four out of five games in the series.
"I don't think the scoreboard showed the play tonight," said Rhett Blackmur, the Broncos' assistant coach. "I think we outplayed them, outworked them and we just didn't get the bounces."
The Bombers opened the scoring late in the first period, with Jacob Vockler scoring his fifth of the playoffs on a deflection. The Bombers' Mason Kaspick ended up in the box for goalie interference after getting checked into Bronco goalie Rayce Ramsay by Humboldt's Quinn Myles, but the Bombers would kill the penalty off and escape to the intermission with the one-goal lead.
Little more offence would follow in the second period, with neither team finding the twine. Bronco defender Reilly MacKinnon got two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct for ripping Matt Raymond's helmet after a whistle, but the Bombers could not convert with the man up.
Shot blocking became the order of the day for the Bombers down the stretch, with Humboldt throwing the kitchen sink at the Bomber end. With just over two minutes to go in the third, Humboldt would pull Ramsay and go for a full 6-on-5 attack. Flin Flon's Matt Perkins had a chance at the side of the net, but the puck bobbled on him and skipped into Bombers goalie Cal Schell's glove.
With time ticking down, the Bombers would try to keep the puck pinned to the boards to kill as much time as possible. Humboldt, with heavyweights McGrath and Perkins on the ice in a last-ditch attempt to save the season, were held up by the Bomber defence. The horn would go with Flin Flon winning the series.
Blackmur said there were a lot of highlights for the Broncos this season.
"We had a lot of personal successes on the team. Just seeing the team grow from Day 1 to now, play as a team and not quit out there tonight, it's nice to see."
Ramsay stopped 28 our of 29 shots, while Schell stopped all 37 shots.
—Written with files from Eric Westhaver, Flin Flon Reminder
