 | ||
| ...and seconds later, the puck is in the net (just imagine it's in the Chilliwack zone) |
Thursday night, Merritt vs Westside was the most entertaining and exciting game of the entire season. So Friday in Chilliwack, after an emotional game that went the distance, there was bound to be a bit of a dropoff in intensity. But nobody could have expected what we saw. It literally went from the most exciting to the most dull game of the season. But it's the result that counts, right? And the result on Friday was better, and more important than the one on Thursday:
-in the 1st period, the Cents actually surprised me. They came out with lots of jump and energy in their game, and played as desperate as the night before at home vs Westside, outshooting the Warriors 18-7. Just like in the last meeting in Chilliwack on Dec. 7th, the Cents couldn't find a way to light the lamp, even though they were helped by Chilliwack playing their backup goaltender, Brydon Udy
-late in the 1st, with just over a minute left, and a face-off to the left of Udy, the Cents would finally get rewarded for their efforts, but it was Chilliwack literally rewarding Merritt personally. With Fletcher and Graboski facing off, the puck was drawn sideways to the right (still not sure if Fletcher got a piece of it) it then bounced off a Chilliwack player's skate (might have nicked Schaeffer's skate as well) towards the right faceoff circle, where Fletcher tried to get a shot off. But before he could, Graboski got to it first, and in an attempt to clear the puck behind his own goal, he accidentally got off a perfect shot on his own goaltender low stick side, where Udy had to react quickly, got a big piece of it with his stick, but had the puck hop up and over the goal line for what would wind up being the only goal of the game either way. Now the goal was credited to Fletcher, and I'm still not sure if he ever touched the puck during the sequence... assists were somehow awarded to Schaeffer and Lamont, which snapped a 9 game pointless drought for the former and an 18 game pointless drought for the latter. Now not to suggest that these guys haven't been good or were not deserving of points, but on this particular goal, they were definitely phantom assists, especially for Lamont who was nowhere near the puck. But with the lack of luck these guys have experienced over the last couple months, they both deserved a break. And it's ironic that the only goal of the game went to Brent Fletcher, who, for the first time in a long time, found himself moved from the 2nd line to the 4th line.
***UPDATE: Sadly, but I think fairly, the assists from Schaefer and Lamont were since taken away, and it now stands as an unassisted goal by Brent Fletcher
-the 2nd period was, quite frankly, as exciting as watching paint dry. And that's an insult to paint. But that's not necessarily a bad thing for Merritt. In fact, if you're the road team, and you're boring the hometown fans, then you're likely doing something right. There were hardly any scoring chances, and Merritt only had one shot in the first half of the period, and 4 overall, compared to Chilliwack's 5 shots. In a game where so much was on the line for both squads, it was really surprising to not see much passion at all in the 2nd period.
-3rd period was much the same as as the 2nd, with the shots winding up 8-3 in favour of the Chiefs, but again I thought neither side was really too desperate. Merritt seemed content with a 1-0 lead, and Chilliwack seemed to show no urgency and didn't have much of a push-back to tie the game. It actually looked like the Cents would ride cruise control the rest of the way for the victory, but things got interesting late, when Dustin Lebrun took a tripping penalty with 2:03 left, and opened the window for the Chiefs to tie the game. They pulled the goalie and went 6 on 4 for much of the power play, and were able to keep sustained pressure in the Merritt zone, but never got any quality chances thanks to the Centennials strong PK and commitment to blocking shots and cutting off passing lanes. It got tense at times, but the Cents were able to hold off the late onslaught and prevail with the 1-0 victory.
-Lino Chimienti certainly deserves credit for his 2nd shutout of the season, but I think he would admit it was the easiest shutout he'll ever have... 20 shots, and not a whole lot of grade A scoring chances. But Lino looked calm and composed throughout the night, and hopefully this game will allow him to get his confidence back. It's nice to see his GAA improve to 3.04 and SV% move up to .898... a couple more shots faced, and his GAA would be under 3 and SV% above .900
 | |||||
|
-considering the importance of this game and the rivalry that SHOULD have developed by this 4th meeting, it was very surprising to see a lack of physicality again, for the 2nd straight time between these two teams. There wasn't a whole lot of emotion or fiestyness in this one. A few mini post-whistle scrums, yes, but that's about it. The hatred just isn't there between these two teams, and that might have been the cause for a relatively lifeless last 40 minutes.
-despite Merritt's offense being non-existant in the final 2 periods, they deserve credit for their stingy defensive play, giving up just 13 shots in the final 2 periods and 20 overall. So they were never really on their heels or in any serious danger. It was basically a chess match where the two teams cancelled each other out, including on the special teams, where the Cents killed off all 5 Chilliwack power players (now 36 for their last 40 over the last 11 games, exactly 90%), but Merritt also faltered on the power play for the first time in a long time, going 0 for 3 with the extra man
*Here are the audio highlights from the game. Keep in mind, the Chilliwack power play at the end was about as exciting as it got, which is why it takes up about half of the highlight pack.
Merritt-Chilliwack Dec 30 Highlights by agreb21
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment