Playing at home is a different animal to playing on the road in the playoffs and the Nipawin Hawks learned that the hard way.
After picking up wins in each of their two home games to start the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoffs, the Hawks went out on the road for the first time and suffered a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Flin Flon Bombers in Game 3 action from Flin Flon.
The March 20 loss saw the Hawks’ series lead shrunk to 2-1.
Josh McDougall led the way offensively for the Hawks finishing with a goal and an assist while Brandan Arnold added the other, his fourth of the series.
Ben Lanfermann responded with a pair of assists for the Bombers, while Chrystopher Collin, Brandson Hein and Ethan Daniels each scored once in the win.
After a quiet first period that ended in zeros, the Bombers wasted little time drawing first blood in the second as Hein beat Declan Hobbs just 1:24 into the period, giving the Bombers a 1-0 lead.
Daniels extended the Bombers’ lead to two at 7:49, beating Hobbs for his first of the series.
Before the game could reach the midway mark of the second period, Arnold notched his fourth of the series to cut the Bombers’ lead to 2-1.
The Bombers clung to their one goal lead for over 23:00 before Collin scored on the power play to regain the Bombers’ two-goal lead.
McDougall added a power play marker of his own just over three minutes later, but that was as close as the Hawks would come.
Hobbs was charged with the loss in the Hawks goal, allowing three goals on 42 shots as the Bombers outshot the Hawks 42-30.
After scoring three times on the power play in their game two win, the Hawks nearly equaled the feat in game three finishing 2-for-6 with the man advantage.
The Hawks’ last six goals in the series have come on the power play, dating back to an Austin Mikesch even strength goal in the second period of game one.
While the Hawks power play was firing, so too was their penalty kill as they held the Bombers to just 1-for-6 with the man advantage.
The Hawks will look to get back in the win column and take a commanding lead in their best of seven series with game four in Flin Flon on March 21.
