While the Terriers and Millionaires are going to grab all the headlines locally as the Sherwood Division Final is the marquee matchup down South, the North final also carries an intriguing storyline as the league's only Manitoba based team in Flin Flon take on the regular season's top team in the Humboldt Broncos in their best of seven series to decide who will face the Terriers/Mils in the Canalta Cup Final.
After starting the season with a lengthy undefeated streak, the Bombers cooled off during much of the early winter before peaking again at the right time heading into the playoffs and their opening round series with the Nipawin Hawks. The league's only Manitoba based team outscored the Nipawin Hawks 29-15 on their way to a six game series victory.
On Humboldt's side the Broncos grabbed all the headlines at the SJHL Trade Deadline getting former No. 1 overall WHL Bantam Draft Pick Alex Forsberg after the Prince George Cougars sent the talented yet problematic forward home after Forsberg demanded a trade from the organization. Humboldt had his SJHL rights and won the lottery in being given a WHL caliber talent for the final stretch before playoffs and never looked back, becoming the clear cut favorites in the North.
After dropping game one of the North Semi-Final against the Melfort Mustangs, Joey Davies took control of the series. With eight goals and nine points Davies was the unquestionable series MVP, carrying the Broncos into the North Final. Despite the Broncos star power and regular season title, this series will be much tougher for Humboldt.
In between the pipes both teams have very solid goaltending in Devin Buffalo for the Bombers and Matt Hyrnkiw for the Broncos. Devin Buffalo carries a .922 save percentage into this series while Matt Hyrnkiw, who holds the distinction of being the only SJHL goaltender to win on the road at the FAA this season, has a percentage of .912. Buffalo is more battle tested going into the final as Nipawin was a much stronger opponent in the opening round of the playoffs.
Hrynkiw never faced more than 30 shots in the North Division Semifinal against Melfort as Buffalo saw nearly 70 more shots fired his way in just one extra game with the Bombers beating the Hawks in six games.
Hrynkiw has been consistent all year for the Broncs, but if he is rusty and Buffalo is in his stride from facing all of those extra shots last round, Flin Flon may hold an advantage in the goaltending department.
At the blueline Humboldt has three returning defenseman from their RBC Cup run in Kam Ballas, Cody Pettapiece and Logan Sproule giving them veteran leadership from an SJHL Championship squad.
The emergence of David Stumborg and the addition of 20 year old Braden Laroque added to that mix of returning talent at the backend and has given the Broncos one of the stingiest defense corps in the league.
The Broncos boasted the league's best goals against numbers in the regular season and carried over that defensive effort in their opening playoff series. Humboldt only allowed 11 goals in their five game series with Melfort.
Combined with the stellar play of Matt Hrynkiw and the Broncos defense is arguably the best in the league, which is why they are the favorites on paper to win this series.
The Bombers have a blueline with far less of a reputation than the Broncos. Led by 20 year olds Brandt Weldon and Josh Roach, the Bombers were second behind the Broncos in goals against this season despite lacking the experience that the Broncos possess in their SJHL championship trio.
19-year-olds Tanner Clark, Danys Chartrand and Brock Hounsell have all proved that they can contribute to a team that had a strong, but not great regular season.
Josh Roach will be an X factor on the blueline in this series, as his offensive talents will become crucial in special teams situations. If the Bombers can get a handful of points and maybe some goals out of their offensive defenseman, they have a chance to pull of this upset.
Where both teams in this series make a name for themselves, however is at the forward spots. Both teams love to rack up the goals and Flin Flon showed this in their series against Nipawin, running up the scores in many of their wins to get here.
The Humboldt Broncos top line of Joey Davies, Cody Poncgraz and Neil Landry combined for 126 points this season and will be a focal point of the Bombers defensive gameplan as their coaching staff will have the tough task of shutting that potent top line down and forcing the Broncos to rely on their second and third lines. If the Bombers manage to do that secondary scoring has not been a problem for the Broncos as returning vets Adam Antkowiak and John Lawrence have combined for 79 points this season as well as the addition of Forsberg who is eager to improve his WHL trade value in the summer time and will be looking to have a breakout series against the Bombers.
With nine players over the twenty point plateau this season, this Broncos team is going to cause a world of problems for the Bombers especially with Joey Davies on a tear after the opening round.
Flin Flon relies mainly on balance for their team's offense as all but one Bomber registered points over Nipawin. Jason Wark posted seven points in the series win, but the Bombers will most likely count on players stepping up in timely situations and hope for the best as they lack the "star" power of Humboldt.
If anyone was going to be labelled a top SJHL forward on the Bombers it would be SJHL Rookie of the Year Brett Boehm. Boehm is on a point per-game pace in these playoffs and had a 54 point regular season for Flin Flon, making him one of their key players for this series and hopefully next season if he doesn't make the jump to the WHL.
Like the Broncos, the Bombers hit the double digits when it comes to twenty point men this season, but will need players who can match the talent of Humboldt's stacked roster if they are going to compete in this series.
The season series between the two teams saw a tale of two halfs of the year, with Flin Flon winning the first two games of their six game set before Humboldt took three of the last four, only losing 5-4 in the shootout as the lone loss. Flin Flon has been playing stronger as of late, but will be hard pressed to ever find that run of form they had at the beginning of the season where they looked like they were just more prepared to begin the regular season than the rest of the league. Now with everyone ready for anything and everything the Bombers will need to step up in a big way to upset the defending champs.
So who will face the Terriers/Mils in the Canalta Cup Final? Only time can tell, but if anyone were to make a prediction they would have to say that Humboldt are the favorites in this series, but as the cliche goes, anything can happen in the playoffs.
