The Merritt Centennials were in the drivers seat heading into the third period against the Cowichan Capitals for the 2nd week in a row, but weren’t even able to salvage a point as they’d fall 5-3.
The first period saw a NVMA bounce go off a defenders shin guard, off the back boards, off the back off Marshall’s skate and in to open the scoring for Cowichan. The Cents would reply with a goal from Christian Buono half way through the frame, and Talon Zakall would score on a drive up the middle late where he went 1 on 2 took the shot, followed up his rebound and put it past Howard to give the Cents the 2-1 lead after 1. Shots were 14-11 Cowichan.
The second period saw the game start to get out of hand around the halfway mark when Broadhurst mugged Buono in the defensive end. Buono turtled up, McIntyre and Clark were extra men in, and Clark, McIntyre and Broadhurst would all be tossed for fighting. That put the Cents on a lengthy powerplay and Captain Rylan Van Unen would score to make it 3-1 Cents. Merritt was unable to hang on to the two goal margin as Mikrogiannakis scored with under 30 seconds left in the second to make it 3-2. Late in the second, Joey Berkopec was handed a slashing major that saw him tossed from the game, so the Cents were down to 4 d men for the final frame. Shots after 2 7-20 Capitals.
The Centennials came up with a big kill of the remainder of Joey Berkopec’s major penalty early on in the third, but couldn’t get that spark to catch fire to their legs. The Capitals would add 2 more goals in the span on a minute to make it 4-3, and would add the empty netter to make it a 5-3 final. Final shots were 48-24 Cowichan.
After the game, Head Coach Derek Sweet Coulter said the team needs to learn from their experiences in the first half.
“We’ve seen that this team can do amazing things when they play the right way, and we’ve seen them be in games right up to the third period. We need to be better at finishing through these games.”
The Centennials would like to wish all their fans a Merry Christmas and we will see you in the first game of the new year on January 3rd.
