Hey, Centennials’ parents. Do you want to take up permanent residence here?

Playing inspired hockey in front of their moms, dads and assorted siblings, the Merritt Centennials dumped their three-game losing slump in dramatic fashion on the weekend with a pair of scintillating home-ice victories in overtime.

Friday night, with their family members fresh into town, the Centennials took another game from the West Kelowna Warriors this season — their third in a row (including exhibition) — after almost two years of coming up empty.

Shane Poulsen’s point shot at 3:35 of the first OT period gave the Cents a hard-fought 5-4 win against the Warriors, who had battled back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to force the extra innings.

John Schiavo with two, Gavin Gould and James Neil scored for Merritt during regulation play, while West Kelowna replied with goals by Michael Buonincontri (2), league-leading scorer Liam Blackburn and Hunter Zundee.

Unlike some of their recent wins and losses, the Cents were full-value for their victory Friday night, as they took the game to the Warriors all evening long. Despite being outshot 33-26, Merritt held the balance of play and had the majority of the good scoring chances. Both Michael Ederer and Rhett Willcox had several golden opportunities to put the game away early but just missed.

Willcox made no mistake on his first chance Sunday afternoon against the visiting Victoria Grizzlies. The second-year forward from Surrey finished off a beautiful three-way passing play with Nick Fidanza and Jake Clifford to put the Cents up 1-0 at 10:20 of the opening period.

Willcox’s tally gave Merritt the first of three one-goal leads against the Grizzlies. Each time, however, the tenacious Island team battled back to even the score. Additional Cents’ marksmen were Gould and captain Sam Johnson, while Meirs Moore, Garrett Forster and Kevin Massy replied for the Grizzlies.

Tied 3-3 after 60 minutes of regulation play, the two teams squared off for another round of overtime excitement at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

Ederer figured prominently in Merritt’s second OT winner in as many games. As the final seconds counted down in the first five minutes of extra time, the New York State product took a nice pass from Josh Teves and fired a laser shot at the Victoria net. The puck glanced off Diego Cuglietta in front and past Victoria netminder Michael Stiliadis just as the buzzer sounded to end the initial OT session.

Positioned perfectly at the side of the Grizzlies’ net, referee Bryan Bourdon didn’t hesitate in pointing to the net, indicating a good goal.

As the Cents players poured off their bench in celebration, and the small but enthusiastic Sunday crowd of Merritt fans erupted in the stands, Grizzlies players could only look on in disbelief as they lost their second game in less than 24 hours by a single goal.

Cents head coach and GM Luke Pierce was happy to get the weekend wins, and pleased overall with his team’s effort in the two hard-fought contests.

“Both games should probably have never gone to overtime,” the coach said. “We played well enough to win in regulation both days. It was good to see the guys gut it out.

“That said, there are some little things that we still need to correct — most notably in our special teams play. It was ugly to say the least.”

Merritt scored just twice in 14 man-advantage opportunities on the weekend, while allowing five goals in nine chances for their opposition.

The Cents will get a chance to make amends on the power play and the penalty kill this weekend. Friday night, they travel to Vernon to take on the Vipers, who sit just a point behind the Centennials in the Interior Division standings. Saturday, it’s the Island Division’s Kings who roll into town for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

On the heels of three Cents’ losses the weekend before, it was no surprise to see a reconfigured set of forward lines on display in Friday’s and Sunday’s games. The top two units had Cuglietta centering Ederer and James Neil, while rookie Brandon Duhaime moved into the middle between Gould and Schiavo. Merritt’s two sandpaper lines consisted of Colin Grannery centering Willcox and Nick Fidanza, and captain Sam Johnson between Daniel Nachbaur and Devin Oakes. The new combos seemed to click as every line scored one or more goals over the weekend.

“There weren’t one or two guys in particular that we were trying to single out,” Pierce said.
“We’re still trying to find the right chemistry and balance that will make us a complete team.”

With netminder Jonah Imoo still on the sidelines, the Cents had Lawrence Langan in town on the weekend as a backup for starter Anthony Pupplo. The 18-year-old Langan, who hails from Penticton, is in his second season with the Osoyoos Coyotes of the KIJHL. In 10 games so far this season with the ’Yotes, Langan has a sparkling 9-1 record, a 2.46 GAA and a .916 SV%.