The Merritt Centennials have managed to put together a stellar season. Their goals per game are considerably higher than last year. This year, the team had 141 goals and 26 wins going into last week’s game against the Penticton Vees, compared to 157 goals and 22 wins in the entire season a year ago. The team is placed second in the Interior Conference, only behind a Penticton team who’s stacked with players who are either NHL draft prospects or who have a hockey scholarship.
Wednesday’s 9-0 loss to the Vees was embarrassing, but the attitude of some of the fans and coaches on the team when the Cents went down 5-0 in the third period was even more so.
When it became crystal clear who the better team was on Wednesday, a few individuals in the crowd began barraging the Penticton bench with insults and swear words. These grown men were calling the Penticton players names that can’t be placed in the pages of this newspaper – words that should only be kept in the confines of a crowd of drunken degenerates, not in a public setting with children who want to take in a hockey game with their parents and friends. Not to mention, the players on the Penticton team are between 16 and 20 years old and still easily influenced by diseased behavior.
It was also surprising to hear another member of the media chime in with a few slanderous words of his own. This isn’t the type of attitude that has made hockey Canada’s prided game – and the Centennials players were clearly embarrassed by their fans’ attitude.
This hostility, fueled by the fact that Penticton was a much better team on Wednesday, is what causes riots. These pathetic individuals would surely have been on the front lines of the Canucks riots last June – burning cars, smashing windows and looting businesses.
After the jeers from the crowd, the Centennials let in four goals in quick succession.
The highly skilled Penticton team is reminiscent of a skilled Vancouver Canucks squad who is consistently bullied, but who makes the other team pay the price with quick goals.
Members of the Merritt fan base prodded and poked the dragon Vees team until it burst out and pummeled the Cents, turning off the lights to what has been up to this point a stellar season.
