On the heels of Jack Works winning the NCAA Men鈥檚 Hockey Championship last weekend, there is another Yellowknife hockey player who has a chance of copping a national crown of his own.
The only question is whether he鈥檒l get to do it as a league champion or by backing in.
Ethan Anstey and his Flin Flon Bombers are off to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League鈥檚 (SJHL) Canalta Cup final after they defeated the Humboldt Broncos in Game 5 of their semifinal series on Tuesday night on the road in Humboldt. A 1-0 shutout gave the Bombers a 4-1 series triumph and a spot in the championship series versus the Estevan Bruins. The final will get underway on April 22 in Estevan.
鈥淲e managed to squeak through,鈥� said Anstey on Wednesday. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a real good team 鈥� lots of speed and plenty of skill but look at the scores.鈥�
Yes, look at the scores.
The 1-0 win on Tuesday was the second such result in the series. Only one of the five contests was decided by more than a one-goal spread, that being Game 1 on April 1, a 3-1 win for the Bombers. That means the Bombers鈥� back end was doing its job and so was goaltender Cal Schell.
鈥淐al was unbelievable,鈥� said Anstey. 鈥淗e鈥檚 the big reason we were winning those close games and our defence was on point the whole series.鈥�
The Bombers ended up in the semifinal after beating the Battlefords North Stars in the quarter-final in six games, winning four in a row after dropping the opening two. They won the first three games against Humboldt before dropping Game 4. If you do the addition, the Bombers had won seven in a row before losing the fourth game and had eight wins in their last nine.
Anstey, who lines up at centre, said that was completely unexpected.
鈥淚f you take a look at how we finished the regular season, we only won three of our last 13 games,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e came off of two road losses in North Battleford and the doubt may have been there a bit. But we never thought we would roll off seven straight.鈥�
Another big reason for the success? Home cooking, said Anstey.
鈥淭his town just went crazy when we got home for Game 3 (vs. the North Stars),鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey won that game for us and Game 4, too. We were down 3-1 and came back to win it, 4-3, in overtime. Our fans are the best.鈥�
Another reason Anstey figures the Bombers have been on a roll is character, something he said took him back to his Wolfpack days in Yellowknife.
鈥淥ur coach (Mike Reagan) reminds me a lot of my dad (Brad Anstey) and Dan (Schofield),鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey used to talk a lot about character and how character wins you hockey games. We won a lot of games down south (as the Wolfpack) based off of our character 鈥� we might not be the best team but we鈥檙e going to go out and earn it. Mike talked about that overtime win against Battlefords as a character win and that reminded me of all those road trips with the Wolfpack.鈥�
About that national championship: the Bombers have now qualified as the SJHL representative for the Centennial Cup, the Canadian Jr. A Championship. The Bruins are the host team for this year鈥檚 tournament and because of that, the Bombers get in by virtue of being in the final.
Anstey, though, isn鈥檛 satisfied with just being able to go.
鈥淲e want to go in as the champs,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat gives us more respect because it shows we aren鈥檛 there because we fluked our way in. We want to show everyone that we belong there. We want to go in with that ring on our finger.鈥�
