Cents Outgun the Apes

Brayden Low had a very effective night on the 2nd line with Reichert and Harper

It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't necessarily "exciting", but the Centennials had their biggest offensive outburst of the season in Salmon Arm on Friday night, blasting the Silverbacks by a 7-4 final.

-In what was a polar opposite storyline from last Saturday in Chilliwack, the Centennials managed to capitalize on pretty much everything they were given. The scoring was very much spread out. Every single line scored, all 7 goal scorers were different, and 15 of the 18 skaters picked up points on the night (especially nice to see Schaefer snap a 10 game pointless drought and Lamont snap a 19 game pointless drought)

-Conversely, despite giving up just 25 shots, the Cents had a few mental lapses in this one with turnovers and odd man rushes given up the other way. For Lino Chimienti, following a routine 20 save shutout in Chilliwack, I thought this was a similar type of game where he could have had a similar result, but he fought the puck a bit, especially with rebounds, and his stats took a bit of a hit with 4 goals on 25 shots.

-lets not look past another dominant 1st period by Merritt, outshooting Salmon Arm 16-4... just like in Chilliwack, they started the right way, but unfortunately they got in trouble when they put it on cruise control, and were outshot 6-1 to start the 2nd period before "righting the ship"

-Salmon Arm deserves credit for sticking around and not quitting, fighting back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits, but the Cents also deserve credit for finding ways to bounce back and re-take the lead, including Fletecher scoring a minute after the 2-2 equalizer, and then Brears adding one a minute after that to blow the game open and end the night for starting goalie Kurt Williams (it's clearly tough for the Silverbacks players to compete when they can't buy a save for most of the season... it's like running on a vertical treadmill- not easy)

-Unfortunately,  Salmon Arm's backup, Adam Clark, didn't fare much better than Williams. Centennials did a great job utilizing what they were given for most of the night, and when a 2-man advantage opportunity arose, the captain struck to make it 5-2, and then Brayden Low, who was allowed to walk into the zone unimpeded, was able to wire a slapper past Kurt Williams with just 4 seconds left in the 2nd to give Merritt a stranglehold going to the 3rd. This was a problem for Salmon Arm all night, allowing the Cents easy access into the zone and to unload 45 shots towards their goaltenders.

-in the 3rd period, the game took on a new level of "chippiness", and tempers started to flare all over the ice, mostly from the understandably frustrated Silverbacks, who were not getting many breaks from referee Jason Cramer... Merritt had a 6-1 advantage on the power plays, including 2 lengthy 5 on 3's

This was a theme all night long, but especially in the 3rd period

-ironically, with Merritt having the only 3 power plays of the 3rd period, including a full 2 minute, 2 man advantage (the timekeepers screwed it up however and one of the penalties on the clock was only for 1:56), it was probably their worst period, surrendering a shorthanded goal to Morgan Zulinick (who was, not surprisingly, the most dangerous Silverback all night along with Devin Muller) to cut the lead to 6-3. But instead of using that as inspiration, the Silverbacks got frustrated and agitated, and this all culminated in what wound up being I think a 15 minute delay, where referee Jason Cramer was verbally pummeled by both teams (had to feel bad for the guy) for what he was calling and not calling, and no matter how many conversations the ref had with players and coaches from both sides, nobody seemed to be happy, and eventually the puck was dropped out of frustration I think while one of the linesmen was still talking to the Merritt bench. The Cents got the full (minus 4 seconds) 2 man advantage out of this, and it was good to see Luke giving the 4th liner and 3rd d-pairing a chance to do something, but without much practice, they weren't able to muster up any scoring chances, despite quite a few shots thrown towards the net.

-overall, this was a team win, and nice to see Merritt find a "different" way to win hockey games, by outscoring their problems, although the Salmon Arm defense and goaltending did contribute in this regard

-Merritt's 4th line of Shaefer, Lamont and Fletcher were dangerous and hungry all night, and Lamont (who had a great steal that led to an assist on the opening goal by Schaefer) had numerous chances to light the lamp where he was either robbed or had a shot go wide or get blocked. This was the best the 4th line has helped in a long time, much to the contribution of Brent Fletcher who is currently centering that trio, and had a goal of his own while on a shift with Evan Stack

-Hard to say if this was the "big" win Merritt was looking for. 7 goals is the most they've scored all year, and this is the first time they won by 3 goals without an empty netter. But considering they were up 6-2 through 40, and had a 3-0 power play advantage in the 3rd (including the marathon 5 on 3) and surrendered a shorthanded goal, overall getting outscored 2-1, I don't think anybody involved was happy with the way they finished

-Cents haven't had a full 60 minute effort in a while, as they struggled really early against Westside out of the Christmas break, then had a near invisible offensive night vs Chilliwack, and followed that up with a relatively dominant (outshooting Salmon Arm 45-25) but not "clean" win against Salmon Arm. As Luke Pierce said in our post-game interview, if they had played like that against the elite teams, they would have been in big trouble.

-Now don't look now, but the Centennials have suddenly figured out a way to play on the road. YES, it's true! After too many years of road misery, and only  being able to win at home, the Centennials now have exactly 10 wins at home and 10 on the road. In fact, if you count overtime losses as outright losses, Merritt would be just 2 games above .500 at home, and 3 games above .500 on the road

-This win, at least temporarily, again puts Merritt into the pluses for goals for vs goals against... the different is just one, but they've now scored 117 times on the season while surrendering 116 goals themselves

*NOTE: Sean Maktaak received a vicious hit to the head from new Silverback Taylor Love in the 2nd period, and it wouldn't be overly surprising if he is suffering at least a mild concussion, and doesn't play tomorrow in Vernon. After all, the next game isn't until the following Friday. I'm speculating that perhaps Tyler Martin will go back to an offensive role tomorrow, and Ross Mancuso will draw back into the lineup on the back end.

Here's the highlights of a wacky game, followed by Luke Pierce's post-game comments:

Merritt @ Salmon Arm Jan 6 Highlights by agreb21

Luke Pierce Jan 6 post-game by agreb21