The Merritt Centennials recorded impressive victories over the visiting Powell River Kings and Chilliwack Chiefs to earn four-of-a-possible six points during a busy stretch of three games in five days.
The Cents were full-value for their 5-1 win over the Island Division Kings on Saturday night and their 6-2 defeat of the Coast Division-leading and nationally-ranked Chiefs on Tuesday.
The pair of decisive wins was a great response by the Centen-nials after they ‘let one get away’ back on Friday night in Vernon, losing to the Vipers 4-2.
The Cents built an early 2-0 lead against the Snakes at Kal Tire Place on goals by John Schiavo and James Neil, then frittered it all away in the final two periods by failing to play 60 minutes of hockey and failing to go for the kill, so to speak.
An ever-dangerous Thomas Aldworth and Blaine Caton scored in the second period to draw the Vipes even, and then Trevor Fidler shorthanded and Aldworth again into an empty net completed the comeback for a Vernon team that is playing some good hockey under new head coach Mark Ferner.
Former Cents’ netminder Jarrod Schamerhorn picked up the win in the Vipers’ net, stopping 37 of 39 Merritt shots, while Anthony Pupplo took the loss, getting beaten three times on 32 shots.
Pupplo more than made amends for any perceived shakiness 24 hours later, backstopping the Cents to a four-goal victory over the Kings in arguably the best game Merritt has played since their 5-0 win over Penticton back on September 27.
It was a rapidly-heating-up Neil who scored the game’s only goal of the first period against the Kings, finishing off a nice passing play with his linemate and chemistry partner, Diego Cuglietta.
The Cents outscored the Kings 3-1 in the middle stanza to essentially ‘put the baby to bed.’
Daniel Nachbaur was rewarded for his hustle and hard work with a pair of goals, while captain Sam Johnson picked up Merritt’s other marker.
Kurt Keats on the power play was the only King able to beat a rock-solid Pupplo between the pipes.
Demonstrating that they had learned a valuable lesson from the night before, the Centennials were relentless on their forecheck in the third period and never let the Kings find their legs.
Neil, with his third goal in two games, added further insult by scoring shorthanded at 3:27 of the final frame.
Pupplo finished up with 24 stops on 25 shots, while the busy Powell River tandem of starter Brett Magnus and 16-year-old replacement Dawson Rodin were forced to deal with 35 Merritt pucks on net.
The Chiefs rode into town on Tuesday sporting a very-impressive 10-2-0-1 record atop the Coast Division. They had edged the Centennials 2-1 at the season-opening Showcase in mid-September and then thumped the visiting Cents 7-1 the next time they visited the Prospera Centre on October 10.
For the third outing in a row, the Centennials scored the first two goals of the game against their opponents, as Gould and newcomer Cole Arcuri tallied for Merritt at 9:29 of the first period and 4:03 of the second respectively.
The Chiefs briefly rallied with two goals of their own, courtesy of Kurt Black and Jake Hand, but that’s as good as it would get for the visitors.
Again, demonstrating that they’d learned something valuable in Vernon a few nights earlier, the Centennials put the pedal to the metal.
Merritt regained the lead late in the second period thanks to a goal by Schiavo, then buried Chilliwack in the third with three unanswered tallies. Devin Oakes scored with the teams playing five-on-five, Cuglietta added insurance with a power play marker, and Brandon Duhaime put a little more salt in the wound by firing the puck into an empty net with a little more than three minutes remaining in regulation.
Also for the third game in a row, the Cents outshot their opposition and exceeded the magic 30-mark in the process. They peppered Chiefs starter Aidan Pelino with 36 pucks, while restricting the high-octane War Bonnets to 28 shots on Pupplo who played superlatively, especially in the early going.
Merritt takes its two-game win streak on the road this weekend with games in Trail on Friday and in Vernon on Saturday. It will be a tough road trip with 20-plus hours of riding the bus surrounding the two games 24 hours apart.
The Centennials’ next home game isn’t until Friday, November 14 when they host the West Kelowna Warriors.
OVERTIME
Saturday’s game against Powell River saw a devastating hit by Merritt defenceman Jake Clifford on the Kings’ Hunter Findlater late in the third period. Caught carrying the puck with his head down, Findlater was crushed by Clifford in a seemingly-clean open-ice hit that had the PR player down for several minutes and eventually helped off the ice.
At press time, Clifford had been handed a six-game suspension by the league for his hit which was classified as “an illegal blow to the head.”
Merritt netminder Jonah Imoo, who has been out with a strained hamstring since early October, was the backup to Pupplo in all three games this past week. We can probably expect to see him return to action in one or both of this weekend’s games.
The Cents-Kings encounter saw three Merritt players suit up against their former team — Imoo, Neil and Arcuri. Neil scored twice, added an assist and was chosen the game’s first star, while Arcuri played big minutes on the blueline and looked very comfortable with his new teammates.
