Going into Wednes-day night’s road game against the Vernon Vipers, the Merritt Centennials could only hope that their fortunes would be as good as the last time they visited Kal Tire Place in the Okanagan city.
The Cents’ 4-1 win over the Snakes on Nov. 10 represents the team’s most recent win and only the second victory in their last 10 games. The result of Wednesday’s game was not available by the time this edition of the Merritt Herald went to press.
Merritt entered the midweek tilt with Vernon sitting in last place in the BCHL’s Interior Division (8-16-0-2) following three losses in as many days on the weekend.
Friday, in Salmon Arm, the Centennials squandered a two-goal, first-period lead in a 5-2 loss to the second-place Silverbacks. The following night, on home ice, the Cents again scored first, before allowing the visiting Victoria Grizzlies to register the next three goals in a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Island Division team.
The third and final setback was perhaps the hardest to swallow. In a Sunday matinee showdown against the Island Division-leading Cowichan Valley Capi-tals, the Centennials failed to protect a hard-earned one-goal lead late in the game and bowed to the Caps 3-2 in overtime.
In all three weekend games, the Centennials showed plenty of individual grit and determination in their play, but just seemed to lack the cohesiveness and finish to pull off wins against equally hard-working opponents.
While there has been some improvement in recent outings, special teams continue to be the Centennials’ Achilles heel.
Against the Silver-backs, goals by Merritt’s Tyler Ward and Colin Grannary were essentially negated when Salmon Arm scored shorthanded to open the third period, and followed that up with a powerplay marker only a few minutes later. Meanwhile, the Cents managed to score only once on five man-advantage opportunities.
Things improved somewhat versus Victoria with only Merritt scoring once on the powerplay, but against Cowichan, the Cents went 0-for-5, while allowing the Caps a powerplay tally in the one-goal loss.
Merritt scorers on Saturday were Gavin Gould and Grannary with his team-leading 14th goal. Gould tallied again for the Cents in Sunday’s matinee, as did defenceman Ryan Coghlan with his first of the season.
Following Wednes-day’s tilt with the Vipers, the Centennials have just one game on the weekend — against yet another visiting Island Division team, the Powell River Kings.
A perennial BCHL powerhouse, the Kings are struggling a bit this season at just 12-10-0-0. They are led by forwards Nick Haglin (5-15-20) and Tristan Mullin (8-6-14), while 20-year-old Jeff Smith is back in net for the Kings after spending last season on an NCAA Div. 1 scholarship at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
