Musixo Blanks Stars.

The Flin Flon Bombers have scooped home-ice advantage away from the Battlefords North Stars. Saturday in the Battlefords, Flin Flon goaltender P.J. Musico stopped all 38 shots he faced, and led his team to a 3-0 victory.

Overall a much better performance by the Flin Flon Bombers. They initiated the physical play right off the hop, and played like a desperate team. Ryan Fox opened the scoring on a first-period power-play. Deven Stillar did a great job at the side of the Star's goal to elude the defense, and he slid a pass back-door to Fox who made no mistake.

The Stars managed 15 shots in the first, but P.J. Musico stood his ground and made some big stops.

The second period was no better for the Stars, who were blanked offensively. The Bombers made it 2-0 off a nice back-hand goal from Brett Penner. Penner converted from Jesse Mychan at 1:31, and the Stars trailed by two.

The third period was a back-and-forth affair with plenty of scoring chances at both ends. A weird moment early in the period as Star's defenceman Brody Luhning was kicked out of the game for using illegal equipment.

At 8:26, Braedon Johnson was hauled down on a short-handed breakaway, and received a penalty-shot opportunity. Johnson made a good move, and aimed for the five-hole, but Musico shut the door and kept his team on top 2-0.

Musico upped the anti even further in the final five minutes. He made save after save as the Stars really came on in waves. In the end, Musico was too much for the Stars who missed a lot of open nets, and were simply unable to score.

Andrew Johnston added an empty-netter at 18:39 to put the game away.

The Bombers went 1-5 on the powerplay while the Stars went 0-3.

After the game, Ken Pearson characterized his team' effort as "good" but not "great."

With the victory, the Flin Flon Bombers return home with the split that they so desperately needed, and now the pressure is on the Battlefords North Stars to win at least once on the road.

Game three goes Monday night from the Whitney Forum at 7:30. You can hear the live broadcast on CJNB/CJNS starting at 7:15.