Date – Friday, February 25, 2022
Game Time – Puck drop 7:00 pm
Location – SOEC, Penticton B.C.
Broadcast – Q101 & BCHLTV
Penticton Vees – 34-7-0-2
Merritt Centennials – 3-35-2-1
The Merritt Centennials will look to make it two in a row for the first time this season as they travel to Penticton to take on the division-leading Vees on Friday night.
The Merritt Centennials came out much stronger on Saturday night compared to the night before, with the first shot on goal coming only a few minutes into the contest, instead of twelve.
Merritt would also score the first marker of the contest as Connor Farren and Jakob Jones would work a beauty 2-on-1 with Jones tipping it home past Owen Albers.
Head Coach Curtis Toneff was playing a gut feeling as he started Colton Phillips-Watts in net and PW would make his coach look good after 20 minutes, stopping all 16 shots he faced.
It would be a penalty-filled second period with both teams cutting ruts to the sin-bin.
Goals would also come in bunches with the Cents striking on the powerplay, a Jacksenn Hungle shot would be blocked, but the puck fell perfectly to Davide Patella who beat Albers blocker side.
Trail would then respond with two quicks goals, first from Zach Michaelis and then Josh Schenk on a delayed penalty.
Following the Schenk marker, Mark Thurston would bulge the twine only 23 seconds later to restore the Merritt lead.
Late in the frame, Connor Farren would snipe one glove side on the 5-on-3 powerplay to make it 4-2 after 40 minutes.
Farren would bulge the twice for his second of the night in the third to extend the Cents lead to 5-2.
Trail would get one back late in the frame courtesy of Joel Barton but that’s as close as they would come, final 5-3 Merritt.
PW would stop 48/51 in the win,
The Penticton Vees enter play tonight winners of 4 of their last five, with a lot of close contests in the mix. Last weekend Penticton beat West K and Cranbrook with a loss to Prince George in the middle. They also picked up a mid-week 1-0 win over Salmon Arm.
The team is led by Josh Nadeau and Luc Wilson with 59 and 58 points respectively.
Previous meetings;
The Cents and Vees have played four times this season with Penticton winning all four matchups. However, last time out between the two sides it was a close affair with the Vees winning 5-3. In that contest, the Cents were level after 20 minutes and trailing by just one entering the third frame. Merritt has not yet scored versus Penticton in Penticton this season with an 8-0 and 11-0 loss on the card.
Blue Paint Battle;
John Hicks has been playing well recently with back-to-back 50-plus save performances and is now 0-11-2 with a .895 SV% and a 5.22 GAA.
Jackson Baker is 0-5 with a .833 SV% and an 8.88 GAA in limited minutes.
In Penticton, Kaeden Lane has picked up right where he left off after returning from injury. Lane is 26-2-1 with a .914 SV% and a 1.97 GAA.
Carter Serhyenko has been serving as the backup recently, posting a 3-2-1 record with a .858 SVAA% and a 3.25 GAA.
Special Teams Comparison;
Vees – PP 24.3% (4/18) PK 83.7% (2/18)
Cents – PP 11.5% (18/18) PK 67.5% (18/18)
