The Centennials finish the road trip strong and top the Surrey Eagles with a 4-3 win to take 4 of a possible 6 points on the Island swing.
The Cents came out flying in the first and converted on an early two-on-one just over a minute in. Brad Cocca broke in on the right side, and feathered a pass across to Mathieu Gosselin who finished up and over Kyle Dumba who was making his first BCHL start of the season for the Eagles. Brett Roloson gave the Cents a two goal edge at the 2:18 mark after getting a similar feed from Christian Sabin. Rylan Van Unen kept the Cents offensive wheels turning when he poke checked a defender and broke in alone cut to the net, pulled the puck backhand, forehand and chipped it over Dumba to make it 3-0. The Eagles got a late marker in the first on the ‘powerplay’ to get on the board 3-1. Dumba stopped 16/19 shots while Duplessis stopped 6/7.
The second period didn’t see as much offense as the first as Nick Granowicz got the lone tally for his 3rd goal in as many games after a nice cross-ice feed from Captain Nick Wicks. Vincent Duplessis 10 in the second, and Dumba stopped 13/14.
In the last period of the road trip the Cents were looking to hang on to a 3 goal lead. The Eagles cut the lead to two, halfway through the second when Captain Ty Westgard was able to beat Duplessis after finding a loose puck in the slot. Then with the net empty, the Eagles got a deflection in front to pull within one, but that would be as close as they’d come as Duplessis and the Cents would hang on.
Vincent Duplessis won his third start in a row, and the Cents have won 3 of their last 4.
Head Coach Joe Martin said the road trip was a success overall.
“I think we saw the team play our game throughout the weekend, use our offense, use our speed, but there’s definitely more to work on.”
Next up the Penticton Vees on Wednesday night at 7pm.
