A Perfect 2 Games Lands Lino Chimienti the BCHL Player of the Week

Congratulations to Lino Chimienti who is the first (and hopefully not the last) Centennial this season to be named the BCHL Player of the Week. Lino was flawless in a pair of 3-0 shutouts. Friday night he made 22 saves against the Vernon Vipers, and then Sunday afternoon he turned aside 34 shots vs the Langley Rivermen. Overall, Lino stopped all 56 shots he faced this weekend, and those sort of stats are too hard to ignore. He's also won 5 straight games overall and has 3 shutouts during that span.

Though if you watched the games this weekend, and probably if you ask Lino, he will admit that they were both team shutouts. Everybody showed a commitment to defense, sacrificing their body, breaking up plays, backchecking, and going a perfect 11 for 11 on the penalty kill.

It's very fitting that the Centennials get a player of the week award after setting a decade-best 6 game winning streak. But congratulations again to Lino Chimienti, who is definitely at the peak of his junior career right now. Here is the link to the official release from the BCHL:

http://www.bchl.ca/leagues/newsletter.cfm?clientID=1413&leagueID=2393&page=58442

Lino Leads the Cents Again, Win Streak Up to a Decade-Best 6 Games!

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.

The Centennials now have a couple of days off before wrapping up their 4 game home stand Wednesday vs the Westside Warriors (who have looked quite good in winning 3 straight of their own). Then they'll head on their annual island road trip (Alberni Valley Friday, Victoria Saturday, Nanaimo Sunday) before coming back to host the top team in the country, the Penticton Vees (Merritt was still the last team to beat them, a 3-2 overtime victory on Nov 5). How far can this "decade-best" streak last? Time will tell...

Here are the audio highlights from the (recent) history-making 3-0 shutout win over Langley:

Langley @ Merritt Jan 15 highlights by agreb21

PREVIEW: Langley @ Merritt

Merritt 23-10-2-5 (53 pts) - 2nd in Interior
LAST GAME: 5-1 win over Chilliwack yesterday (won 5 in a row)

Langley 13-23-1-3 (30 pts) - 8th on the Coast (tied with Alberni Valley, but played 2 more games)
LAST GAME: 5-4 OT loss in Salmon Arm yesterday (lost 5 in a row, 2 in overtime)

-This is the first and only meeting of the season between these two "non-rivals"... considering there is no built-up hatred for each other and Langley has nothing to play for, you have to wonder how much passion there will be in this game on either side

-fatigue will be a factor for both teams, as both will be playing their 3rd game in 2 and a half days. Conditioning will be tested bigtime and we'll see who's in what shape as the game progresses.

-coming off 5 straight wins, the Cents will get a pretty good shot to extend this run to double digits, as their next 5 games (in 8 days) are all against against teams that are out of the playoffs, and Nanaimo will be the only team that is even above .500 on the coming schedule. The key for Merritt is to stay focused and motivated and not to allow themselves to relax thinking that these wins will fall into place on their own. It's easier said than done when you're playing a team for the only time in a season, but if Merritt can approach these games with the same mentality they did against Vernon and Chilliwack, they could build something magical here that will all but assure them a 2nd seed and home ice advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs

-considering that Merritt has won 5 straight and Langley has lost 5 straight, the key for the Cents in this one is simply not to reverse momentum... they can't give the Rivermen any life, because every team loves the role of spoiler, and guys are still playing for scholarships and jobs next year. The Rivermen likely don't have much confidence right now, which the Cents will try to ensure with another quick start like the one against Chilliwack. If they can do that, Langley might just get demoralized and subconcsiously roll over, allowing Merritt to ride the cruise control for the 2 points

-Langley's biggest problem is defensively, where they average 4 goals against per game, and have averaged 6 against over the 5 game losing skid. This is a very young, inexperienced team that are learning on the fly, and the goaltenders haven't been good enough to bail them out. With that in mind, the Cents can help themselves by firing rubber from everywhere, because the 2 goaltenders (James Barr and Jim Kruger) are a little shell-shocked right now and likely fragile with their confidence. Meanwhile the Cents have gotten plenty of balanced scoring of late, so they have a lot of guys with confidence they can score goals right now

-Offensively, Langley averages well under 3 goals per game, which is worst in the Coastal Conference and 2nd worst overall in the league after Trail, but they do still have some weapons up front, including 20 goal scorer Mario Puskarich, set-up man Darnell Dyck and big-bodied Mike Tebbutt on the 1st line. There is some decent offense on the 2nd line as well, but a big drop-off from lines 3 and 4, and only 5 goals from their entire blueline combined. The Cents simply have much more depth, better defense/goaltending and better special teams

-amazingly, despite all these seemingly major differences, Darnell Dyck is the only point a game player for Langley, and Regan Soquila is the only point a game player for Merritt

-despite this similarity, Merritt is at the peak of their game right now and have opened up a double digit lead on the 2nd seed in the Interior Conference. With that in mind, and 1/3rd of the season left (20 games), the Cents are in a very luxurious situation where they basically have a couple of months to warm up and perfect their game come playoff time. And let's be honest, if they're ever looking at a 7 game series vs Penticton, they could use as much practice as possible. Right now might be the best, most convenient time to challenge them based on how the Cents are playing, but they'll first have to show their ability to win games that they should win, before getting an opportunity to knock off a team that nobody can picture losing another game at this point.

UPDATE: As expected, Lino Chimienti will get back in the crease for this matinee. Lino comes into this game having won 4 straight games, 2 of them shutouts, and another one where he gave up just 1 goal to Vernon. There are no other lineup changes from last night for Merritt, as Sean Maktaak remains out with a concussion. Everything seems to be working from every angle, so no need to mess with a good thing

Meanwhile, here's Langley's roster for this game:

Mario Puskarich (92)    Mike Tebbutt (92)       Darnell Dyck (91)
               
Derek Sutliffe (92)        Austin Plevy (94)         Chris Tracy (92)

Peter McMullen (93)    Evan Campbell (93)     Ben Greiner (93)        
               
Danny Vlanich (93)      Sebastien Pare (93)     Jackson Playfair (94)


                         Thomas Nitsche (92)        Ray Bell (93)

                       Richard Coyne (91)        Ryan Bakken (91)

                           Valik Chichkin (94)        Bo Pellah (95)

                                          Nicholas Gushue (94) 


                                             James Barr (93)
   
                                             Jim Kruger (92)   

SCRATCHES:

Scott Moyer (92) INJ

Opening face-off for this game is at 2:00 pm at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. I will have the pre-game show starting at 1:30 pm. You can tune in on Q101 FM in Merritt or online at Q101.ca

Cents Find Offense from Numerous Sources, Dominate the Chiefs for their 5th Straight Win

 

The Energizer bunny keeps going, and going... and going........ and going. It's officially the longest winning streak of the season for Merritt, who followed up an impressive 3-0 shutout over the Vipers Friday with an equally impressive and even more dominant 5-1 dismantling of the Chilliwack Chiefs on Saturday.

-As if there weren't already enough positive storylines to focus on with the Centennials, they seem to build more each and every game. Tonight, Tyler Martin had his best game as a Centennial, picked up his 1st BCHL goal and a nifty assist... new Centennial Carter Shinkaruk set up the Martin goal for his 2nd point in 2 games with Merritt... Brendan Lamont scored his 2nd goal and 3rd point in 4 games after a 19 game pointless drought... every line scored at least 1 goal (like in the 7-4 win vs Salmon Arm)... Tyler Steel came up with a big game after sitting out the previous 4 for off-ice reasons... the PK went a perfect 5 for 5 and has now killed off 49 of the last 54 opposition power plays (league best 90+% during that span), while the PP has also scored in 2 straight games. Just over a month ago, both the PP and PK were 15th in the league, now they're both 9th. No coincidence the Cents are rolling.

-the Centennials took control of this game early and never really looked back. Tyler Martin got the offense rolling with a nifty pass from just inside the blueline to Brandon Bruce, who re-directed the puck perfectly past the glove of Mitch Gillam. Shortly thereafter, the Cents got a lucky bounce on the PP off the skates of Brayden Low to make it 2-0, and not long after that, Tyler Martin finished off a 2 on 1 off a perfect pass from new Centennial Carter Shinkaruk to make it 3-0. 3 goals in 3 and a half minutes, and the Cents never looked back. That was the end of the night for starter Mitch Gillam, and even though Brydon Udy was better, he was peppered just as much as Gillam was. The Centennials were dominant all period, outshooting the Chiefs 16-6, and Tyler Steel had one big save to highlight his period.

-the 2nd period showed the Chiefs get a little bit of life, and Tyler Steel was a little busier turning aside 10 shots, but Merritt still carried the play and had the better scoring chances. Bryton Udy was quite strong keeping the Chiefs in it, but he made a crucial mistake on a Reece Wilcox dump-in from center that he mishandled, allowing Brendan Lamont to jam in the puck in from the goal line. That 4-0 goal was the ultimate backbreaker that the Chiefs just couldn't recover from. That's how it stayed through 40 mins.

-for the 2nd straight game, the Cents were able to keep their foot on the gas pedal in the 3rd period, and never really gave Chilliwack a chance to mount any sort of comeback. The Chiefs did get a nice tip-in from newcomer Kody Dhaliwal 5 minutes in (set up by the other newcomer, defenseman Anderson White), but that's as close as they would come. I thought Dhaliwal, playing with Bondra, were the most dangerous combo for the Chiefs on the night, but simply couldn't do enough to overcome the areas that Chilliwack was outplayed in. The Cents locked it down, and even answered the Chiefs marker just over a minute later, when Billy Marshall sent Chad Brears up the middle, and Brears fire a wicked shot off the post and in, blocker side to put the game away at 5-1.

-For my money, this was the most dominant PK I've seen from the Centennials all season long. They were extremely aggressive and won battles along the wall all night long. Everybody was willing to sacrifice their body to block shots, and the team did a great job of clearing the crease whenever there was a loose puck in front of Tyler. It was an overall outstanding defensive effort once again, giving up just 23 shots, making Tyler Steel's solid game almost a non-factor, which speaks wonders about the team play in front of him.

-The Chiefs were stifled and frustrated through the game, as Merritt effectively clogged up the neutral zone and often broke up the Chiefs rush before they entered the offensive zone. 

-Carter Shinkaruk, to me, looked even more impressive tonight than in his debut Friday where he scored. He seemed more confident and comfortable in his role and made plays happen all over the ice, almost setting up a couple of other goals. He was actually more noticable in this game than the one on Friday, but both were very promising indicators of what could come during the final stretch of the season for the newest Centennial 

-It's worth noting that this was literally the "biggest" Cents win of the season. Nothing has come easy for them, and this was the first victory by more than 3 goals (the first 2 were with an empty netter, one against Chilliwack, the last one was a 7-4 win over Salmon Arm without an empty netter)

-Overall, the Centennials were ferocious all night long at both ends of the ice, and definitely showed more hunger and willpower than the Chiefs, even though it's Chilliwack who's in danger of missing the playoffs and entered the night 9 points back of Merritt. They finished the night just 3 points ahead of Vernon for the 4th and final playoff spot with plenty of hockey yet to be played for the Vipers to catch up

-as for Merritt, the win puts them comfortably 10 points up on Prince George (Spruce Kings were the latest victims in Penticton's 23rd straight win, but still hold 1 game in hand on Merritt) and 11 points up on Chilliwack (though the Chiefs still have 3 games in hand)

Here are the audio highlights from Merritt's most dominant win of the season:

Chilliwack @ Merritt Jan 14 Highlights by agreb21

Preview: Chilliwack @ Merritt

Merritt 22-10-2-5 (51 pts) - 2nd in Interior
LAST GAME: 3-0 win over Vernon last night (won 4 in a row, points in 6 straight)

Chilliwack 20-14-0-2 (42 pts) - 4th in Interior
LAST GAME: 4-3 win over Prince George last night (snapped a 5 game losing skid)

Season Series: Merritt 3-1 (a little deceiving, as 3 of the 4 games were decided by 1 goal, one of those in overtime, and the last game Merritt won, Chilliwack scored the only goal on their own net. Including an empty netter in a 4-1 win, the Cents have outscored Chilliwack 10-6 through the 4 games, for an average of 2.5 to 1.5)

*FIRST AND FOREMOST: A huge congratulations is in order, because through 39 games this season, the Centennials have just matched last year's win total at 22 and point total at 51... they will do a lot more damage in their final 21 games... this is a remarkable turnaround, especially considering they started this season as poorly as the last, winning just 1 of their first 8 games. Hats off to Luke Pierce and Joe Martin, and every single player on the team that have worked their butts off to make this happen.

-after an inconsistent start out of the gate after the Christmas break, the Cents have gotten progressively better, and still kept winning games in different ways while making mistakes, but that was capped off by a near flawless effort last night vs Vernon. A shutout win for Lino, 1st goal in his 1st game for Carter Shinkaruk, a great crowd on home ice, it was just a feel-good night overall, and that atmosphere has elevated Merritt back to the peak of their game, having picked up 11 of a possible 12 points in their last 6 games.

-fatigue will start to play a factor tonight for Merritt, but you would hope not too much, since there's another game upcoming tomorrow afternoon. And, even though the gap on Chilliwack is 9 points, with the Chiefs holding 3 games in hand, this is once again "THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE SEASON" for both teams.

-the Cents are firing on all cylinders right now, getting timely offense from spread our sources, great goaltending, and extremely tight defense. Not to mention special teams. After a 10 for 21 stretch on the power play, the Cents went 1 for their next 13, but scored a pair last night to get back on track. And as for the PK, Merritt has killed off 44 of their last 49 for an average barely under 90% (would be tops in the league). This is a well-oiled machine right now that is headed very much in the right direction

-for Chilliwack, they were headed in a polar opposite direction, but they pulled out some heroics last night... down 3-2 with less than 3 minutes left to Prince George, they were in danger of losing their 6th straight game and almost taking themselves out of a playoff spot after picking up 15 of a possible 16 points in the 8 games leading up to this skid. But the Chiefs came up with a pair of goals in 22 seconds, much to the delight of both Merritt and Vernon, as they avoided overtime and held off the Spruce Kings for their first win since Dec. 17 over Salmon Arm (close to a month, though we had the Christmas break in between)

-A real positive sign for Merritt is that they're finding different ways to win these days, and not just relying on their goaltender to steal the show like they had to in years past. The goalies have been very good, and both guys now sport a very respectable GAA of below 3 and save percentage of above .900. But they haven't had to stand on their head nearly as much as in past years, and that's a good sign for the development of the overall team. Even though they're tied with a couple of teams for  being the 3rd lowest scoring in the league, they're playing tight defense and getting timely offense, and still, for the most part (with the exception of the snoozefest Dec 30 in Chilliwack), making their games exciting for fans at home and on the road.

-The Chiefs are in an interesting position where they still have to be aware of Vernon behind them, trying to chase down the final playoff spot. They're currently 5 points up on the Vipers with a game in hand as well, but you have to think the Vipes will find a way to get on a roll soon and make a push. So Chilliwack has to make sure they just "get in", but they could also easily jump into 2nd spot themselves. They're only 1 point back of 3rd place Prince George with 2 games in hand, and a win tonight vs Merritt would put them 7 points back with 3 games in hand. They win those games in hand, and no matter what Merritt does, it's just a 1 point deficit to overcome. However, that is a lot of "ifs" and the Chiefs will have to get back on the role they were in during late November/early December to make that happen.

-while the Centennials got the game-winning goal from their new acquisition, Carter Shinkaruk yesterday, the Chiefs also debuted a couple of new pieces... secondary scorer Kody Dhaliwal who went from Salmon Arm to Flin Flon of the SJHL, and then to Chilliwack at the trading deadline to rejoin Harvey Smyl, who he played for in Langley last year. Dhaliwal recorded an assist in his Chilliwack debut. Also, the Chiefs have swapped dmen, sending Mike Berry to Salmon Arm, and  bringing in towering blueliner Anderson White (6'4, 220lbs) from Des Moines of the USHL. White suited up for Quesnel last year, so he's now back to the same franchise that moved to Chilliwack.

-much like against Vernon, this season series between Merritt and Chilliwack has been very tight-checking and close, and this is a game that you can likely again expect to go right down to the wire. Though unlike Vernon, and unlike any other team in the Interior Conference, if the first 4 games are any indication, this will be a "mellow" game. These two teams are only 2 hours apart and battling each other for 2nd in the conference, but there has been very little in the way of emotion/physicality in the season series so far. It's almost as if they have a mutual respect for each other and sticking to purely business. This is the 5th meeting, so you would think it has to heat up eventually. Only time will tell I guess.

-Lino Chimienti is pencilled in to get his 5th consecutive start after coming off his 2nd shutout in 2 weeks, though Luke Pierce might throw a curveball and go back to Tyler Steel in this back to back. If not, you can almost certainly expect Tyler to get the call tomorrow afternoon against Langley. He hasn't seen action since getting pulled in the first game after the Christmas break, a 6-5 overtime loss to Westside. Since then, Lino has picked up 4 straight wins, 2 of them shutouts. So it's no surprise if Luke Pierce continues to play the hot hand tonight.

Here are the projected lineups for tonight:

MERRITT:

Regan Soquila (93)        Chad Brears (91)        Evan Stack (91)       
       
Silvan Harper (92)        Brayden Low (94)         Jakob Reichert (93)       
 
                                   Brandon Bruce (93)     Carter Shinkaruk (91)       
      
Payton Schaefer (93)    Brent Fletcher (92)       Brendan Lamont (94)       


                           Reece Willcox (94)        Brandon Pfeil (92)

                          Richard Sabourin (92)      Tyler Martin (93)

                            Billy Marshall (91)        Ross Mancuso (92)

                                             Dylan Chanter (95)   
       
     
                                              Lino Chimienti (91)            
     
                                                 Tyler Steel (93)   
     
SCRATCHES:

Sean Maktaak (92) INJ   


CHILLIWACK:

Trevor Hills (92)              Garrett Forster (95)           Michael Spring (91)

Kit Sitterley (91)              Derek Huisman (92)          Malcolm Gould (92)
   
Jeremy Gossard (93)       Spencer Graboski (93)       Mathieu Tibbet (93)
   
David Bondra (92)           Kody Dhaliwal (91)           Josh Hansen (92)



                      Shay Laurent (93)        Matthew Hutchinson (91)

                     Robert Jang (93)- AP       David Thompson (92)

                   Anderson White (91)        Alex Perron-Fontaine (92)

    
                                            Mitch Gillam (92)         
               
                                             Bryton Udy (93)          

SCRATCHES:

Tyler Miller (91)                
Jaret Babych (94)


Opening face-off tonight is at 7:30 from the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena. Pre-game show begins at 7:00 on Q101 FM in Merritt and online at Q101.ca             

New Centennial plays hero as Cents Strangle the Vipers

Welcome to Merritt Carter Shinkaruk!

In his first game with the red, white and black, former Powell River King Carter Shinkaruk broke a scoreless deadlock in the 2nd period and spurred the Centennials to a 3-0 shutout victory over the struggling Vernon Vipers. The win was Merritt's 4th straight, and the loss was Vernon's 4th straight as well. With Chilliwack beating Prince George tonight, the Cents cushion for 2nd is now up to 8 points on Prince George (though the Spruce Kings have 1 game in hand) and 9 points on Chilliwack still (though the Chiefs have 3 games in hand). The cushion on the 5th place Vipers is now up to 14 points, and even though Vernon has 2 games in hand, you have to think it's no longer a question of "if" the Centennials get into the playoffs, but simply "can they hold their 2nd seed through the remaining 3rd of the season"....... to be determined.

-unlike Saturday in Vernon, the Cents came out ready from the opening face-off tonight, and simply looked more determined throughout the night. They won more battles, blocked more shots and went the extra mile together as a team to come up with their best game since the Christmas break

-the 1st period was scoreless but far from boring... there was lots of up and down play both ways, several momentum swings, but both goalies (Lino Chimienti and Kirby Halcrow) stood tall and looked very sharp to keep the game scoreless

-2nd period was much the same as the first... again evenly played, and again the goalies continued to steal the spotlight in yet another low-scoring affair between these two rivals. But when the Centennials got their 3rd crack at the power play, they broke through and didn't look back. After a clean but devastating hit by Silvan Harper on Max Mowat, Turner Lawson came and cheap-shotted Harper in the neutral zone to get 2 minutes for charging (could have and probably should have been more). Brandon Bruce won the ensuing face-off back to Billy Marshall, Marshall threw the puck on net, and Shinkaruk buried the rebound through the legs of Halcrow to break the ice and give the Cents the 1-0 lead they would never relinquish.

-In the 3rd period, for whatever reason, the Vipers did not show much life... for much of the game, they were merely playing "prevent" defense, and as soon as they got control of it in their own zone, they flipped it to center to make sure they wouldn't get burned... this was especially evident in the 3rd, as the Cents came at the Vipers in waves, and outshot them 14-2. Instead of pushing back to tie the game, the Vipers were merely trying to prevent further damage. But AP call-up Eric Chore (from the North Okanagan Knights of the KIJHL) made a bad pass up the middle out of his own zone that was picked off by Evan Stack, and he broke in with speed, got a soft shot off, but Halcrow gave up a juicy rebound, and the Merritt captain buried it on the backhand to give Merritt the 2nd goal and the all-important insurance marker.
The Vipers simply got too dejected from this goal and didn't have much mojo left, allowing the Centennials to cruise to victory. But not before another power play marker from the captain... after struggling in the first 90 seconds of their 4th power play, the Cents had a dominant final 30 seconds, hemming the Vipers in their own zone... Brears fed Soquila in the right circle for a one-timer, and with 2 seconds left in the power play, Evan Stack buried the rebound for his 2nd of the game and team-leading 17th goal of the season to cap off the scoring at 3-0 (ironic how much Evan struggled to score in the first half of last season, even one goal, and Chad Brears managed just 4 all of last year... now they are the team leaders in goal scoring)

-Lino Chimienti had a very good, very confident game for Merritt between the pipes. He didn't have to "huge" but he was very solid. Although not really tested in the 3rd period, he earned his stripes in the 1st and 2nd. It was a relatively routine night for the Quebec native, but he made a lot of underrated saves on quick shots and shots through traffic, and most importantly, he looked calm and composed throughout the night with good rebound control and not a lot of scrambling needed. It was Lino's 3rd shutout of the season, and after an up and down season, he has now gotten his GAA below 3, slightly better than Tyler at 2.86 (Tyler's is 2.87), and his save percentage above .900 at .903 (slightly below Tyler's .907). It is uncanny how these two netminders have such similar stats. This was Lino's 4th straight start and 5th straight appearance (he has now played 4 more games than Tyler), but you have to expect Tyler will get back in at some point this weekend. Luke Pierce might decide to go with the hot hand in Lino vs Chilliwack on Saturday, but one way or the other, Tyler Steel will have to get a game in this weekend, whether it's Saturday vs Chilliwack or Sunday vs Langley.

-defensively, Merritt had another remarkable game... they hustled on the backcheck, sacrificed their body, broke up plays constantly, and any time there was a loose puck on top of Lino's crease, the Cents were on it first and able to prevent any damage. Billy Marshall led the way as usual by winning almost every single battle, whether it was 1 on 1, 1 on 2 or 1 on 3... he simply wanted the puck more, and that was the case for most Centennials all night long

-Merritt was also very strong in the faceoff circle, led (from my perspective) by Brent Fletcher, who seems to be a perfect fit on the 4th line with Schaefer and Lamont. This trio had another effective, dangerous game and numerous times came close to scoring.

-top to bottom, all across the board, I doubt the Centennials coaching staff has much to complain about from this game... it was a team effort through all 4 lines, 3 defensive pairings and the goaltender, and they have now outscored Vernon 8-1 over the course of the last 3 head-to-head meetings.

-special teams was another big factor, as the Cents found some life on the power play... after going 1 for their last 13, they capitalized on 2 in a row before the secondary guys got a chance on the final 5th power play in this game. And as for the penalty kill, it was aggressive, persuasive, and sometimes more dangerous than Vernon's power play, as the Cents went a perfect 5 for 5, including a late kill in the final 2 minutes of the game. All the intangibles were there for this one.

Here are the audio highlights from a very exciting, entertaining game from the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena:

Vernon @ Merritt Jan 13 Highlights by agreb21

Post Trade Deadline Audio: Luke Pierce + Carter Shinkaruk

Like I mentioned, the Centennials were one of the quieter teams at the trading deadline. Well before tonight's game, I caught up with Head Coach and GM Luke Pierce who explained why that is, and talked about the one departing player and the one newcomer.

That newcomer is Carter Shinkaruk of the Powell River Kings, and I had a chance to chat with him as well. From first impression, Carter seems like a very friendly guy, who, much like the departing Dustin Lebrun, will likely fit seamlessly into the locker room. And he seems very motivated to succeed here in Merritt.

Here's what Coach Pierce and Carter Shinkaruk had to say:

Luke Pierce after the Deadline by agreb21

Carter Shinkaruk Comes to Merritt by agreb21