Sioux Lookout Bombers finish regular season in second place, prepare to meet to Fort Frances Lakers in  quarterfinals of SIJHL playoffs

Tim Brody - Editor

The Superior International Junior Hockey League’s (SIJHL) regular season has come to a close, and with a pair of wins on the road this past weekend against the Kenora Devil’s Gap Islanders, the Sioux Lookout Bombers have finished the regular season in second place with 74 points.
Last year’s Bill Salonen Cup champion Kam River Fighting Walleye finished first in the league with 79 points.
The Bombers will have home ice advantage as they face the 7th-seed Fort Frances Lakers in the SIJHL quarterfinals.
Game one in the best-of-seven series will be on Friday, March 22 at the Hangar (Sioux Lookout Memorial Arena). Game two will take place the following evening, also at the Hangar. Puck drop for both games is slated for 7:30 p.m.
The series will move to Fort Frances for games three and four.
Game dates and times for the rest of the series, if necessary, had not yet been published by the league as of the time this article was published.
People can keep up to date on that information at sijhlhockey.com.
Sioux Lookout Bombers Head Coach Carson Johnstone shared after the playoff schedule had been announced, “It’s playoffs. I feel like we’re going to approach every series with the same attitude. We talked about it a bit at the end of the year, just focus on what we want to do as a squad, not worry too much about the opponent, just worry more about the things that we want to accomplish as a hockey team, little marks that we want to hit and if we do that, I think we should have some success.”
He said the team will be working hard to prepare for their series against the Lakes, “Obviously finishing second, home ice is nice. I like our chances. I hope we can have some success here but Fort’s a good team, we have to be prepared.”
Commenting on how close the team came to finishing first in the league in just their second season, Johnstone said, “It would have been nice to have finished first, that would have been a nice feather in our cap… it was tight this year, it was real tight. I’m really proud of how the guys played and I think it could have been interchangeable first and second place.”
Addressing Bombers fans, Johnstone stated, “Thank you very much for the support all season. We appreciate it every game. We have a great home record and we’re happy to have home ice, at least into the first round and hopefully into the second if we can make it there, so we look forward to seeing you at the rink and we want to bring it home.”