It all comes down to this.
Six months. Fifty-six regular season games. Four playoff games. It all comes down to 60 minutes (or, knowing this series, maybe more) of hockey tonight.
The Estevan Bruins came into this best-of-five wildcard series as the favourite. The Flin Flon Bombers, after trading away most of their top players at the deadline, surprised many just by squeaking into the playoffs.
But the Bombers have been the better team through four games, and tonight the Bruins must raise their game to advance to the next round.
Because when it comes down to 60 minutes, it doesn't matter who had the better regular season. It doesn't matter which team has better players. What matters is who wants it more. That's it.
The Bombers have reached this point by getting timely scoring from the likes of Tyson Empey, Dean Allison and Erik Pedersen, who have taken their game to a new level. They've gotten stellar goaltending from Simon Hofley, who is proving the Bombers are just fine between the pipes without Devin Buffalo. They've dominated the play for long stretches at a time, in part due to a strong forecheck, and their defencemen have often made it tough for the Bruins to create offence as they win the battles for loose pucks and force the B's to the outside.
The Bruins are here due in large part to clutch scoring from the rookie line of Lynnden Pastachak, Keegan Allison and Jason Duret, as well as some fantastic goaltending from Matt Gibney, who owns a .937 save percentage in the series and stole Game 1.
What Estevan needs tonight is for their veterans to step up. League scoring leader Austin Daae and linemate Tanner Froese, who was sixth in scoring, have combined for just one goal, that coming off Daae's stick in Game 3. Their line with Corey Kosloski needs to be a force tonight.
The Bruins also need to create sustained offensive pressure. A major reason why the Bombers kept coming at them in waves in the first two games was because the Bruins couldn't get set up and Flin Flon's transition game was excellent.
And on that note, Estevan has to cut down on the shots against. Granted, the first three games went to overtime, but here are the Bombers' shot totals in regulation in each game: 35, 39, 48, 45. Many of them have come on rebounds, as Gibney has at times struggled to control them and the Bomber forwards have done a good job of swarming the net.
The Bruins were the sixth-best team in the SJHL this year by points, and I firmly believe they're too good of a team to go down in the survivor series. We'll see if they can will their way to victory tonight.
Puck drop is 7:30 p.m., Affinity Place.
