All Hands on Deck in Trail as the Cents Wrap up their Road Schedule In Style

Ian Webster/Merritt Herald

Every line got on the scoresheet as the Centennials flexed their depth with a 6-2 victory over the Trail Smoke-Eaters in their final road game of the regular season

• The Cents came out with just the game plan fill-in head coach Joe Martin had in mind for them, as they reversed their fortunes from the last game in Trail and had a dominant first period to set the tone for the game

• The Centennials got progressively better throughout the 1st, in a period that saw them fire 18 shots on Trail netminder Lyndon Stanwood

• After Merritt failed to capitalize on an early power play, they were able to keep the puck in deep, and Brandon Bruce's shot from the left point was tipped in front by Reichert through the legs of Stanwood to open up a 1-0 Merritt lead

• They would add to the lead 6 minutes later, as Mancuso banked the puck off the right wing boards, and Patterson won a race for the puck, scooping it up in the right circle and firing a show low stick side, which Stanwood kicked out right on the stick of Payton Schaefer, who buried the rebound with emphasis to snap a 20 game pointless drought

• Tyler Steel was very sharp and neat with his goaltending, turning aside all 8 shots he faced, a preview of an overall great night for the 18 year old

• In the 2nd period, the Smoke-Eaters appeared to be more hungry from the outset, playing desperate hockey and winning a lot of battles. They outshot the Cents 14-8 and probably controlled more of the play in the middle frame. However, they couldn't solve Tyler Steel again, who made many underrated saves and looked calm and cool and confident.... and quite frankly, poised to pick up his 4th shutout of the season

Ian Webster/Merritt Herald

• At about the halfway mark of the period, on a Merritt power play, Evan Stack weaved his way to the goal almost from center on a partial 2 on 1... he looked off the shot and pass and deked all the way past the goal line, until he finally centered it in front and banked it off Soquila and in to give the Cents a 3-0 lead. A lucky break for a team that's not used to getting them

• After some more great goaltending from Steel, Billy Marshall sent in Evan Stack on a clear-cut breakaway from the blueline in, and the captain made a nifty deke to the backhand to bury it stick side on Stanwood, giving the Cents a 4-0 lead through 40 minutes 

Ian Webster/Merritt Herald

• The 3rd period was more or less evenly played, even though Trail had a slight edge on the shot clock again, but the scoring was 2 apiece, and that was reflective of the way the period went

• 4 minutes in, Silvan Harper made a great move side-stepping his check from the right halfboards and cutting into the right hashmark before wiring a wrist shot high blocker side on Stanwood to give the Cents a 5-0 lead (I believe Jakob Reichert should have had the assist instead of Brayden Low, but Low might have a 2nd one on the play as well)

• It was at this point that Trail really woke up and started pressing hard, playing some of their best hockey of the game. They had the Cents pinned in their zone for a few shifts in this period

• The strong play by the Smokies paid off with a pair of goals less than 3 minutes apart. The first was a great individual play by Tiechko, as he drove wide around Maktaak on the left wing, and with Steel cheating on a potential pass-across, Tiechko tucked it through his legs to cut the lead to 5-1

• the 2nd goal was a result of a bit of luck, but it came from a nice rush by McEwan creating a 4 on 2 across the Merritt line... Garrett McMullen took a shot from the top of the left circle that was stopped by Steel, but the rebound bounced off Sabourin's chest in front and in, to make it a 5-2 game

• the Smoke-Eaters kept pushing for a few minutes, but after a lack of results, they sort of accepted the end result. But before the result was final, the 4th line was at it again, as Brendan Lamont sent the puck out front from the right circle, and Patterson reached and reeled it in (after missing a breakaway chance earlier), pulling Stanwood off his post and snapping one down low on the far, glove side with just 14 seconds left, his 1st BCHL goal in his 6th game with the Cents (after picking up his 1st BCHL point on the Schaefer goal earlier). 

Ian Webster/Merritt Herald

*Like I mentioned, it was all hands on deck tonight for the Cents. As a matter of fact, not only did all 4 lines get on the scoresheet, but 11 of the 12 dressed forwards got points tonight (as well as 3 of the 5 dressed defensemen, minus Sabourin and Wilcox). Carter Shinkaruk was the only forward exception, despite one of his best games that I've seen

*Tyler Steel was actually a big difference-maker in this game, despite the lop-sided score. He made big saves in the 1st to allow the Cents to take the lead and keep it, and after Trail made it 5-2 in the 3rd and were really coming on, he literally made 3 or 4 huge stops that could have made this game a lot tighter than it should have been

***Special thanks to Cents forward Brent Fletcher who helped me out on the broadcast tonight with colour commentary duties. It was a lot of fun!

Here are the 3 stars that Brent and I picked on our broadcast:

1) Scotty Patterson- 1G, 1A
2) Tyler Steel- 34 saves on 36 shots
3) Connor Tiechko- 1G

Here are the audio highlights from Merritt's final road game of the regular season, their 2nd place and home-ice clincher in Trail:

Merritt @ Trail Mar 9 Highlights by agreb21