If the Battlefords North Stars want to see the Civic Centre again this season they must win in Flin Flon.
But, dropping a 7-2 decision Monday night at the Whitney Forum meant the North Stars needed to win an all-or-nothing Game 4 in the Manitoba city to avoid being eliminated four games into the first round by the Flin Flon Bombers.
Flin Flon led the series 2-1 after Monday night's win, forcing the North Stars to win both Tuesday night's contest then a Game 5 deciding game at home in order to avoid exiting the SJHL playoffs.
The North Stars struggled to find consistency during the first three games.
Going into Game 1 at the Civic Centre Friday night, the North Stars were anxious to start the playoffs with a clean slate after a so-so regular season that wrapped up with a miserable 9-2 drubbing in Kindersley.
Fortunately, the North Stars put the regular season behind them quickly as they scored the first goal of the playoffs at 8:24 on a power play. Blake Tatchell scored from Cris Neurauter and Colin Phaneuf. That North Stars maker was the only goal of the first period.
The first period also saw the first fight of the playoffs, as Robbie Newton of the North Stars and David Roper of the Bombers got into a big scrap midway through.
In the second period the Bombers came back to take the lead. At the 5:22 mark Corey Tyrell beat Kyle Birch to tie things up at 1-1, with Roper and Dillan McCombie notching assists. Then at 6:24, it was Jesse Mychan scoring from McCombie and Stefan Virtanen to give the Bombers the lead 2-1.
But the North Stars tied it at the 17:44 mark as Cole Gibson scored from Colin Phaneuf and Woody Klassen to tie things up at 2-2 after 2.
In the third period the Stars exploded with four goals. Flin Flon continued to kill themselves with penalties as a hooking minor to Tanner Clark led to a Brody Luhning goal at the 1:37 mark, with Keith Grondin and Braeden Johnson assisting.
Then at 2:25, Boyd Wakelin beat P.J. Musico to give the North Stars a 4-2 lead. Robbie Newton and Dillon Forbes assisted.
At 8:26 it was Blake Tatchell from Luhning and Phaneuf, and then at 15:46 it was Tanner Schwab from Gibson to round out the scoring in a 6-2 Battlefords victory in Game 1. Shots on goal were 38-33 in favour of Flin Flon on the night, but the Bombers also took more penalties: 15 compared to the North Stars' eight. The third period also saw Travis Sparrow and Tyler Mah go to the penalty box for major fighting.
Game Two was a different story for both teams, as this time Flin Flon cut down dramatically on the number of penalties and got a stellar performance from P.J. Musico in net to earn a 3-0 shutout win.
The first Flin Flon goal was in the first period on the power play. With Travis Sparrow off for hooking Tanner Clark scored on the power play, with Deven Stillar and Andrew Johnston assisting to make it 1-0 Flin Flon.
The Bombers then made it 2-0 in the second as Brett Penner beat Birch, with Jesse Mychan assisting.
The period could have been worse for the Battlefords. Consecutive high-sticking penalties to the North Stars' Cody Folstad and Brody Luhning gave Flin Flon a two-man advantage during the second period, but the North Stars managed to kill it off. However, a North Stars power play produced nothing, and the period ended 2-0 for Flin Flon.
The third period saw things go from bad to worse for the North Stars as Luhning was tossed from the game at the 3:16 mark for illegal equipment. Coach Ken Pearson explained later that Luhning was using an illegal stick.
"You're allowed to have three players use Bauer sticks," said Pearson, with those players indentified before the game. Sometime after the game started, one of the players switched to another stick, and "that put us over the limit."
The North Stars survived that Flin Flon power play, however, and had a golden opportunity to get back in the game soon after as Braeden Johnson was awarded a much needed penalty shot at 8:38. But his shot was stopped by Musico, and that seemed to deflate the North Stars' bench.
Still, the North Stars continued to turn up the pressure and fire away at Musico during the third period with several good opportunities. Musico, however robbed the North Stars at every turn.
Finally, coach Pearson pulled Birch for the extra attacker. After a couple of attempts by the Bombers to score the empty-netter went wide of the goal, Johnston finally found the open net with the third goal for Flin Flon.
Musico was named the first star of the game in Flin Flon's 3-0 win, stopping 38 North Star Shots. Kyle Birch had a solid night in net as well, stopping 39.
The two games at the Civic Centre ended up split, with both sides winning one. After Saturday's result the North Stars were forced into the unenviable task of winning on the road in Flin Flon Monday and Tuesday, with the North Stars needing to win at least one of those games if they wanted to play on Civic Centre ice in the playoffs.
"We're not happy with the split, obviously," said Pearson after the game. "We would have liked to go up 2-0 on Flin Flon. We just didn't have that push that we needed tonight to get us going."
Pearson acknowledged the switch seemed to turn on the North Stars in the last 10 minutes, but noted that effort came too late.
"You can't wait that long. We need to have that flick switched when you drop the puck at the start of the game," said Pearson, who added the team's inability to go to the front of the net cost the team some opportunities. The turning point, he said, was the team's failure to score on the power play during the first period, when "we needed a goal."
Pearson said the plan for Game 3 in Flin Flon Monday was for the North Stars to "go at them harder" and "initiate the game, not sit back and see what Flin Flon is going to do."
But that plan went straight to heck in the first period as the Bombers scored the first goal of the game at 5:55 mark. With Cody Folstad off for interference, Andrew Johnston scored from Corey Tyrell and Ryan Fox to make it 1-0.
The North Stars did turn up the physical play considerably in Game 3, but that was not without consequences. The North Stars got into penalty trouble in the first period as Sparrow took an elbowing penalty and then Neurauter went off for high sticking. But the North Stars were able to overcome that adversity quickly.
With Neurater in the box, Kyle Hall scored with Braeden Johnson assisting at the 10:23 mark, shorthanded, to knot it up at 1-1.
But Dylan Balaski's goal at 14:37 gave the Bombers a 2-1 lead after one.
In the second, Brody Luhning scored from Cole Gibson and Colin Phaneuf at the 41-second mark to knot it at two. It remained tight for the rest of the period, with the North Stars managing to get some short-handed opportunities with Flin Flon on the powerplay.
The turning point of the game came late in the period when Phaneuf was called for consecutive high-sticking and unsportsmanlike conduct minors at 19:41.
Flin Flon had a four-minute one man advantage that extended into the third period of play, and they took full advantage.
Corey Tyrell scored his second of the playoffs to make it 3-2 from Clark and Fox at the 42 second mark. Then Fox got his first goal from Clark and Johnston at 2:26 on the power play.
The roof fell in on the North Stars after that, as Jesse Mychan scored at 7:59 and Jay Young scored at 8:26 to make it 6-2. Dillan McCombie's goal at the 18:50 mark wrapped up a miserable night for the North Stars - a 7-2 Bombers victory.
The final tilt of the game came when Bomber's tough guy Ashton Bernard went after Mitch Galbraith with a blow to the head, and Galbraith stood his ground, ending up with the two coming to blows. Both got the gate for major fighting and Bernard also got an instigator penalty, misconduct and game misconduct penalties.
In many respects Game 3 was the complete opposite of Game 1 - a tough, gritty effort, but this time the North Stars were the ones becoming unglued. The North Stars knew they needed to turn it around, again, and fast Tuesday night.
