The Merritt Centennials racked up three more losses this past week to bring their season’s record to 6-11-0-1. The team’s current winless streak now stands at five games.
The Cents travelled to Trail on October 21 and were soundly defeated 5-1 by the Smoke Eaters, despite outshooting the host team 37-36.
Defenceman Nick Fiorentino scored Mer-ritt’s only goal of the game on the powerplay in the first period. After that, it was all Smokies on the scoreboard, as five different Trail players put the puck past Centennials’ starting netminder Cole Kehler.
The Cents took seven of 12 minor penalties in the game, including all four in the second period. Six of the seven penalties were for tripping, as Merritt players had trouble all night long keeping their sticks to themselves.
Merritt went one-for-four on the powerplay, while Trail tallied twice with the man advantage.
Two nights later, the same two BCHL Interior division teams squared off again at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena in the back half of their home-and-home series.
Determined to atone for their poor showing 48 hours earlier, the Centennials jumped out to period leads of 2-1 and 4-1, thanks to a pair of powerplay goals by Gavin Gould and even-strength markers from Ryan Forbes and Colin Grannary.
Unfortunately, the Cents were unable to sustain or build on their lead in the final 20 minutes. Careless, sloppy play resulted in Merritt players taking five of six third-period penalties.
With just over nine minutes to play in regulation, the Smoke Eaters made the home team pay dearly, scoring three times in succession on the powerplay in a span of three minutes and 46 seconds to tie the game and send it to overtime.
At 2:13 of the first overtime, Trail’s Jake Kauppila completed his hat trick, burying the game winner in his team’s comeback and Merritt’s meltdown. The final score was Trail 5 Merritt 4.
All told, the Smoke Eaters tallied four powerplay goals on nine chances, while the Centennials went two-for-six. Trail outshot Merritt 32-27 on the night, including 11-3 in the third period.
Sunday afternoon, Merritt hosted the surging and nationally-ranked Salmon Arm Silverbacks (10-3-2-0) in a matinee affair.
Despite being outshot 36 to 14 through 40 minutes, the Cents and ’Backs were all tied up 3-3. Merritt scorers were Brett Jewell, Zak Bowles with his team-leading 10th goal and Mitch Lipon. Keeping his team in the game was Centennials’ rookie netminder Colten Lancaster.
Grannary’s second goal of the weekend at 1:19 of the third period gave Merritt their fourth lead of the contest, but once again penalties came back to bite them.
With Lipon sitting in the box for cross-checking, Cameron Trott scored the equalizer for Salmon Arm. Just over five minutes later, Ross Heidt buried the game winner.
The final score once again was 5-4 in favour of the visitors.
Lancaster faced an incredible 50 shots between the Merritt pipes, while Salmon Arm goaltender Angus Redmond needed only to stop 17 of 21 pucks sent his way to pick up the win.
The Silverbacks went three-for-seven on the powerplay, while the Centennials failed to score on six man-advantage opportunities.
The lack of discipline that has been regularly sending Cents players to the sin bin, and the resultant penalty kill situation, have been the bane of the Centennials’ existence since day one of the 2015-16 season.
The team has allowed an abysmal 32 powerplay goals on 83 opposition opportunities. Their 62.45 PK% rating is the worst in the league, and almost 12 percentage points lower than the nearest team above them.
While Merritt’s powerplay rating of 20.21% (19 goals on 94 chances) has the team ranked a respectable sixth out of 17 BCHL teams, the special-teams goal differential of minus-13 is the worst in the league again, and the single most telling reason for the Cents’ poor record up to this point.
Things don’t get any easier in the short term for the Centennials as they prepare for yet another home-and-home series with an Interior division rival.
This Friday and Saturday, the Cents go head-to-head with the 15-1-0-0 Penticton Vees, the third-ranked Junior A team in the country.
Game one is at the South Okanagan Events Centre; game two in Merritt.
The reloaded Vees are threatening to run away with their division and the league again this year, having lost only once since opening night back in early September.
Penticton is led by a pair of eighteen-year-old projected first-round NHL draft picks in 2016 — forward Tyson Jost and defenceman Dante Fabbro — along with 20-year-old forward Scott Conway from England, who returned to Canadian junior hockey after one year on an NCAA scholarship at Penn State.
Conway and Jost are currently one-two in league scoring going into this weekend’s action, while Fabbro isn’t far behind in ninth (the highest ranking of any BCHL defenceman).
The Cents are relatively healthy going into the weekend match-up with the Vees. Hardworking forward Nick Fidanza is day-to-day with a lower body injury, while defenceman Tyrell Buckley is continuing to work his way through the post-concussion protocol following his hard fall a week and a half ago.
Game time Saturday night at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena is 7:30 p.m.
