It was a physical war on the ice and a tight 60 minutes of hockey, but at the end of the day, the Centennials couldn't overcome a slow start and suffered their 2nd loss in 3 games on the island road trip, 3-2 to the Nanaimo Clippers.
- the 1st period saw plenty of frantic action both ways with both goalies staying very busy (shots were 16 apiece), but the Centennials fell behind in the shot clock early and were on their heels a bit, as the refreshed Clippers got the early jump against the tired Cents
- Lino was strong early and got a break on a shot that hit the post on a Clippers breakaway... the Centennials were able to climb back on the shot clock, but with a lot of perimeter shots that were easily handled by Faust (who fought his rebound control tonight and allowed for plenty of 2nd chances, though many of them were cleared by his defensemen)
- the shots wound up even but Nanaimo had the much better scoring chances. In fact, I had them pegged at about 6-1 at least in that 1st period for the Clippers
- Nanaimo would get rewarded for their strong early play and ability to create chances, as they got a lucky bounce on a spin-around shot from Clayton Chessa in the left circle that went off the shin off Correale and through the legs of Chimienti
- the Clippers kept pushing right afterwards, and after a couple of great chances for Gordon, the puck wound up on the stick of the Clippers 16 year old Brendan Taylor who fired a wicked shot from the right circle over Lino's shoulder on the short side. 2 goals in 1:50 and Nanaimo was in control
- the 2nd period saw the Centennials push a little harder and create more opportunities for offense, while Lino did well to give them a chance to climb back. Finally Harper found a hole behind the defense and Lamont set him up with a beautiful breakaway pass from center... Harper made a nifty deke to the backhand and slid the puck through the legs of Faust to get the Cents on the board and give the bench a big boost
- Merritt followed up this goal with a lot of energy and pressure in the offensive zone, but their momentum was taken away by a late penalty. And just 8 seconds into the Clippers power play, Gladiuk won the face-off back, McCormack fired a shot on goal and Correale pounced on a juicy rebound for his 2nd of the game... 3 minutes after Merritt had got to within one, the Clippers scored a backbreaker to regain the 2 goal cushion and they finished the last few minutes as the stronger team
- in the 3rd, despite playing the night before, the Centennials found some urgency they didn't have before and pushed really hard to climb back into it, like they did down 2-0 Friday night vs Alberni Valley. They fired tons of shots on goal, but again not a whole lot of grade A scoring chances. Defensively, the really contained the Clippers well though
- With the 1st line tied up in their own zone, Regan Soquila (who was 8th in BCHL scoring coming into this game) took a really hard hit against the side boards from Clayton Chessa, and as the play went into the Clippers zone, Soquila remained on the ice in agony, then tried to crawl to the bench, unable to even stand up. It appeared like his left knee went into the boards awkwardly, and he had to be helped off the ice limping to the dressing room, and never came back. The injury looked extremely serious and came at the worst time with Merritt trying to come back in that game, and anticipating Penticton in their rink on Wednesday (now winners of 25 in a row after a 3-1 win over Prince George this afternoon). Soquila will be evaluated either Monday or Tuesday, but in my opinion, looks very doubtful for Wednesday's big showdown.
You can see in the first pic that Soquila's leg is up in the air. It
was either bent when he was hit by Chessa or it was a charley horse
from Chessa's knee to his thigh. The hit was a side body check by
Chessa and I don't think there was any intent to knee on knee. It
looked clean enough but Soquila tried to dodge it and appeared to have
been unlucky.
Soquila hits the ice, takes a second to register the agony and then
begins dragging himself to the bench. He made it as far as centre ice
before play was whistled down and he was helped off the ice.- Silvan Harper took Soquila's spot on the top line the rest of the game and fit in seamlessly... and just when Merritt needed a spark, they got one, as that line worked really hard to keep the puck in the offensive zone, and Chanter's shot from the right circle created a juicy rebound for captain Evan Stack who buried his 21st of the season to tie him with Brears for the team lead
- The Cents would get a late power play with 6 minutes left, but unfortunately, they couldn't come up clutch. For the first time in 7 games, Merritt did not score a power play goal (on 5 tries) and that wound up being their ultimate undoing, as the Clippers lone power play marker wound up being the game winner
- after the power play, the Centennials had trouble generating many chances to tie it up, and the Clippers played a great game of clock management, not even allowing Lino Chimienti to leave his net for the extra attacker... the Cents would come no closer, and the game ended with Merritt battling to even get the puck out of their own zone
*Although there weren't a lot of high quality scoring chances, Merritt still deserves credit for firing 46 pucks on Billy Faust the afternoon after playing against Victoria, going up against a team in Nanaimo that hasn't played since Friday
*Billy Faust looked shaky at times but effective, as he got lots of help from his team taking away 2nd chance opportunities when they arose... it was a real team effort for the Clippers
*Desperation is not something you can teach or coach, but something that comes into effect depending on various factors. This weekend, it looked like the Centennials were a little comfortable with their lead on 2nd place and felt that success would come naturally against the Coastal's non-playoff teams, while Nanaimo showed their hunger and urgency and won many puck battles in the game, climbing to within 5 points of Coquitlam for the final playoff spot with both teams having 19 games left, and 4 head to head meetings left as well. This was a game with the coaches stealing the spotlight, but for Nanaimo, it was as big a game as any outside of Coquitlam
*the game was very phsyical and had a nasty tone to it. The Clippers often tried to bully the Centennials around, but Merritt wouldn't back down... unfortunately, this wound up in a few penalties that I'm sure the guys would like to have back (including a bench minor), as discipline was an issue on the night and over the weekend
*in case you haven't heard by now, the reason I'm able to write this blog entry tonight instead of tomorrow is because the team is staying in Nanaimo due to very strong winds up to 100km/hour canceling all ferries for the day. I can't complain with an extra night in a hotel room, but it would have been a lot more enjoyable with a "W" in the column this afternoon
*the big question now shifts to "how will Merritt respond"? Wednesday night they will see possibly the best team in BCHL history, a Penticton squad that is just 4 wins shy of tying the New West Royals 20 year old record of 29 straight wins, and they need to come out with their best game of the season. They were STILL the last team to beat them, a 3-2 overtime win back on Nov 5 (in Penticton where the Vees were missing 5 top players to the World Junior A Challenge), and they might have the best chance of anyone in the league at being the NEXT team to beat them, provided they come out with a positive attitude and an elite effort, like the one we saw last weekend in the 3 straight home games vs Vernon, Chilliwack and Langley
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