The Merritt Centennials are showing no signs of slowing down after wrapping up a perfect 3-game weekend against the Langley Rivermen. Lino Chimienti continued his remarkable run of late by picking up his 3rd shutout in 5 games, and league-leading 4th shutout of the season. Lino has also won 5 straight games, and with the addition of Tyler Steel's victory vs Chilliwack on Saturday, the Centennials have now run their win streak to 6 games, which, although might not seem "astronomical", is the longest win streak in recent history. I literally manually scanned every season before I came here for 2008/2009, and there were a couple of 5 game win streaks, but not one that went to 6 games dating back to the 2003/2004 season, which is as far as the BCHL archive will allow me to go. So it's definitely the first streak of its kind in at least 9 years, potentially much longer. Definitely something to be extremely proud of, but at the same time, it also puts things in perspective for how bad things have been; I stumbled upon a game in the dominant 05/06 season where Merritt, on home ice, still lost 10-0 to Penticton, and got outshot 57-10... they got as many shots as Penticton had goals... I'm not going to lie, it made me cringe. But I digress... back to the game at hand...
- Merritt was once again the better, hungrier team throughout the game. Granted, they didn't seem to have as much fire as they had vs Vernon or Chilliwack (outshot 34-30), but that's understandable considering it was their 3rd game in 2 and a half days (as it was for Langley) and considering that there was no rivalry or built-up hatred for the Langley Rivermen.
- the 1st period was one that didn't have much of a flow or pace to it, especially for the first half. It was a feeling out process both ways, plenty of icings and offsides from unforced errors, and lots of weak shots that were easily frozen by the two goalies for even more whistles. It was somewhat of a fragmented period with off and on spurts both ways, but very few quality scoring chances. It was a solid warm-up for both goaltenders, though Jim Kruger (who I once called Chad Kroeger, true story) had the more difficult shots to contend with, and looked quite strong coming off Friday's game where he gave up 9 in Penticton.
- in the 2nd period, the Cents got off to a great start on a power play that carried over from the first. Though it's usually tough to open a new period with the man advantage, the Cents moved into the Langley zone with ease and set up... Jakob Reichert must have held the puck himself for a solid 10 seconds or so, working his way between the left corner and the halfboards... finally, since he didn't seem a passing option he liked, he walked out to the top of the left circle, and fired a shot far, glove side on Kruger who was deep in his net and couldn't react in time. That opened the scoring and broke the game open, as it finally got a bit of flow
- 4 and a half minutes later, Brandon Pfeil broke up a Langley rush at center, and broke in on a 2 on 1 with Brayden Low... he fed low across the line on the left wing, Low gave it right back to Pfeil who looked like Pavel Bure flying down the right wing before he sniped a shot high over Kruger's shoulder, glove side, to give Merritt a 2-0 lead
- Centennials really took over the game I thought in the 2nd period, even though the shots favoured Langley slightly by an 11-9 margin. They had numerous shifts in the offensive zone with sustained pressure, even though they didn't always wind up with shots, or at least shots that got through. Despite the shots favouring Langley, the rink was tilted to their end of the ice, as they spent much of the 2nd pinned behind their own blueline
- the 3rd period was one where you could sense the next goal would be crucial, and both teams pushed pretty hard for it. The goaltenders continued to look strong. Lino Chimienti was clearly playing with a sense of confidence he probably hasn't had his entire career. He's controlling rebounds very well, smothering pucks when he has to, and getting more comfortable playing the puck in front and behind his net.
- Jim Kruger did everything he could to keep his team in the game as well, but unfortunately for him, received no offensive support. Eventually, the Cents were just too much and wanted the next goal more than Langley did... or so it seemed
- With Merritt's top line buzzing, Evan Stack made a great cross-crease pass for Chad Brears, but Brears mis-handled it on what could have been an open net. However, he stuck with the play, centered for Soquila who's spin-around backhanded was stopped, but Stack pounced on the rebound and buried it into an open net to seal the game for Merritt making it 3-0. It was the easiest of the 3 goals for the Cents, but Stack was rewarded for an outstanding game. He looked possessed in this game, creating opportunities for himself on almost every shift. He had lots of speed and plenty of shots, and his compete level was second to none
- Merritt again had all 4 lines rolling this afternoon... every line had extended shifts in the offensive zone and created good scoring opportunities, and the ice time was spread out very evenly to accommodate everyone fairly. I think there is no question that Brent Fletcher has made a huge difference on the 4th line since coming to center Schaefer and Lamont. As Luke Pierce indicated before the game, he has brought both Schaefer and Lamont out of their shell and allowed them to emerge into their potential. Meanwhile Brayden Low has fit like a glove on the 2nd line with Harper and Reichert. I don't foresee any changes any time soon.
- Merritt's power play looked very solid on both of their chances and finished 1 for 2... 3rd straight game they scored on the PP. Meanwhile the PK only had to kill off one Langley power play, and they did that... now Merritt has killed off 50 of the last 55 opposition power plays. Nobody in the league can match that kind of run on the penalty kill. CHECK THIS OUT: It was literally only 1 month ago (keep in mind there was a week and a half with no games during the Christmas break) that Merritt's power play and penalty kill was 2nd last, both 15th in the league. Fast forward only 3 weeks of actual games played, and the power play has moved into the top half, now sitting 7th, while the Penalty Kill is right in the middle sitting 8th. WHAT A TURNAROUND!
- One last note on the goaltending... both Lino and Tyler had a rough start to the season and a few off games here and there, but it's been a remarkable turnaround for both of them. Lino has a few more games played and a few more wins, but their stats are eerily similar. Chimienti has a 2.74 GAA and a .908 SV%, meanwhile Steel has a 2.77 GAA and a .909 SV%... literally splitting hairs. And it's nice to see, with the departure of Powell River's Jamie Phillips, Lino Chimienti now lead the league in shutouts with 4, and both Lino and Tyler in the top 10 for goals against average and save percentage. That includes backups who haven't played in as many games.
Here are the audio highlights from the (recent) history-making 3-0 shutout win over Langley:
Langley @ Merritt Jan 15 highlights by agreb21
No comments:
Post a Comment