By the time this edition of the Merritt Herald hits the newsstands on Tuesday morning, the Merritt Centennials will have already played game three of their first-round, best-of-seven playoff series on Monday night in Prince George. The result of that game was not available by press time.

The Centennials went into game three against the Spruce Kings up 2-0 in the series thanks to a superb weekend on home ice in games one and two.

Friday, in front of a season-high crowd of 950 people, the Cents scored four unanswered goals in the second and third periods to defeat the Sprucies 4-1.

Twenty-four hours later, after conceding the opening goal to the visitors for the second time in as many nights, the Centennials roared back with three of their own for a 3-1 victory.

Cents’ head coach and GM Luke Pierce expressed delight in his team’s ability to bounce back from a pair of one-goal deficits.

“In Friday’s game, it [Prince George’s first goal, by Michael Betz] almost turned out to be a good thing. It happened and we realized that it wasn’t the end of the world. We had a picture-perfect response with a goal of our own just 23 seconds later. In the second game, our response was excellent again.”

The Cents’ first tally on Friday, by centreman Brent Fletcher at 8:41 of the second period, got the Cents’ really rolling. It was followed shortly thereafter by a pair of almost-identical goals from the point by Merritt defenseman Brandon Pfeil. In both instances, the 19-year-old blueliner wired shots off the right post past a screened Ty Swabb in the Prince George net.

It remained a two-goal lead for the Cents until the 5:42 mark of the third period when another rearguard, 20-year-old Bill Marshall, finished off a nice passing play with forwards Regan Soquila and Chad Brears to beat Swabb.

Between the pipes, Cents’ netminder Lino Chimienti was excellent, stopping 32 of 33 shots sent his way. Merritt directed a total of 36 shots at the Spruce Kings’ net, many of them quality efforts.

The Centennials went 1-for-4 on the powerplay, while blanking the Sprucies on all six of their man-advantage opportunities.

Saturday, the Cents’ response to a first-period fluke goal by Prince George came from winger Carter Shinkaruk. The native of Langley pounced on a centering pass from behind the net by linemate Brandon Bruce and buried the biscuit into a wide-open cage.

The second period of game two featured some of the biggest hits seen at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena in recent memory as the Cents’ line of Fletcher, Jakob Reichert and Sylvan Harper absolutely rocked the house, leaving Spruce Kings’ carnage all over the ice.

With just under six minutes remaining in the middle stanza, Fletcher combined with Soquila to spring Centennials’ captain Evan Stack loose up the middle. The team’s leading goal scorer made no mistake, snapping the puck five-hole past Swabb for the eventual game winner.

The insurance marker came on the powerplay, in the third period, with five minutes remaining in regulation time. Shinkaruk burst down the left side, beat a Spruce Kings’ defender, then deposited a beautiful backhander behind Swabb on the glove side for his second goal of the night.

Pierce knew the former Powell River King and three-time Fred Page Cup finalist would come up big once the playoffs got underway.

“Right from the beginning, he [Shinkaruk] showed his composure. He’s been through it. His second goal in game two was one of the prettiest I’ve seen in my three years coaching here.”

Chimienti was again solid in net, allowing just one goal on 28 shots. Swabb made 22 stops in total. For the second night in a row, the Cents’ won the special teams’ battle, scoring once on the powerplay while shutting out the Spruce Kings.

Pierce was pleased with how his team stuck to the game plan in both weekend games.

“Our team effort and support for one another was tremendous. If there’s one thing we need to improve it’s being even more physical off the start. Up in Prince George, we’ll want to take the crowd out of the game early.”

The Centennials bussed up to PG on Sunday, and were planning to have a light game day skate on Monday. The team is there for games three and four of the series with the latter slated for Tuesday night.

Game five, if needed, is scheduled for Thursday at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. The puck drop is 7 p.m.