5-2 win. 3-0 series lead. The Bombers have the league semifinal in a stranglehold after a big Game 3 win on the road.
The Battlefords North Stars kept pace with Flin Flon through two periods, but the Bombers pushed ahead late with three third-period goals.
The Bombers got on the board first, with Alexi Sylvestre sneaking loose from the Battlefords defence long enough to break into the zone. Once the Stars defenders descended on him, Sylvestre knocked the puck over to a wide-open Koen Senft, who shot it into an open net behind the Stars' Logan Cunningham.
Both teams started a well-worn path to the penalty box following the goal, with the Bombers and Stars trading calls before the Stars' Alex Izyk took a two-and-a-10 for a headshot on Flin Flon's Adam McNutt. McNutt stayed on the ice for a time following the hit, but got back up and stayed in the game, while the Bombers would get a chance to put their powerplay poachers to work.
Carter Anderson fired a pair of bombs at Cunningham, with one going wide and one hitting the post, while Sylvestre almost got the best of Cunningham again, with the goalie stopping him point-blank. McNutt got a one-time chance of his own, but the goalie came up big again, ending the Bombers' man advantage with nothing to show for it.
That lack of execution would bite the Bombers when the Stars got a powerplay chance of their own, ending with Battlefords' Kian Bell knocking in a rebound to tie the game. While that goal tied the game, the Stars would take a penalty of their own after the goal - Elijah Anderson got the gate for cross-checking Sylvestre in the back after the goal, getting himself an unsportsmanlike conduct call. Moments later, Justin Lies made them pay, knocking in a rebound just like Bell to restore Flin Flon's lead.
Late in the first, it was Harmon Laser-Hume's time to shine - first robbing both Kian Bell and Ben Portner on back-to-back chances while shorthanded, then robbing Gavin Granger blind on a play where North Stars players had already raised their arms to celebrate a goal. Despite a late blitz by the Battlefords, Flin Flon headed to the room up 2-1.
The Stars came out of the intermission hot and got an early powerplay, where they set about tying things up - this time, Bell did the deed with a long shot through traffic that Laser-Hume never saw.
Flin Flon could get chances later in the frame, but late in the second came a penalty that set the Bombers back - four minutes to Keefe Gruener for a slewfoot, putting the Stars a man up to start the third. In both of the first two games in this series, the Stars took double minors in the third period that the Bombers scored on, helping them pull ahead.
Unlike the Stars, the Bombers started the third by killing off both halves of the double-minor, then made the Stars pay with a go-ahead goal. Following the big penalty kill, Carter Anderson got his first of the series in spectacular fashion, collecting a bounce off the end boards, tucking both the stick and puck between his legs and beating Cunningham, giving Flin Flon a 3-2 lead.
Following the goal, the game was paused, with what appeared to be a medical emergency in the crowd at Access Communications Centre. Trainers from both teams and first responders at the game headed into the crowd, taking care of the situation enough for the game to restart - though the Stars might have wished it didn't.
Not long after the stoppage, the puck squirted out to Noah Houle coming in from the point. The defender walked in, beat Cunningham clean with a wrist shot and raced back to celebrate his first playoff goal this year with the Bomber bench. Flin Flon, for the first time on the night, had a two-goal lead.
The Bombers extended that lead late courtesy of their captain, with Lies sneaking into the zone and snapping home a one-timer to seal it. Lies' second of the night made it 5-2 Bombers. Flin Flon kept up pressure late in the game, trying to add on a sixth goal and forcing the Stars into a pair of ill-advised late penalties, but no more goals would hit the scoresheet.
Laser-Hume made 27 stops in the Bomber net, while Cunningham made 40 saves on the night.
Game 4 will be played in North Battleford Tuesday night, with the Bombers having the chance to both eliminate the Stars and move into their third straight SJHL final.
