The Merritt Centennials were sitting in the reeds until the 3rd period, then exploded for 5 goals to come back and beat the Surrey Eagles 5-3.
Carter Woodside made his BCHL debut and early on it was a battle of the goaltenders as him and Cal Shell went toe to toe in the first period. Shots in the first were 13-9 in favour of the Cents.
The Cents continued to pour the chances on in the second, but the Eagles were the ones who would capitalize. Leading scorer Holden Katzalay sniped a pair of goals on passing plays and the Cents found themselves in a 2-0 hole heading to the third. Shots after 2 were 28-18.
The boys saved their best period for last as Josh Kagan crashed the net on a Joey Berkopec feed out of the corner and got the puck up and over Shell to make it 2-1 at the 5:41 mark. The Eagles were able to respond on a goal from Schovanek to restore the 2 goal lead, but that didn’t stop the Cents from continuing to roll. On the next shift, Manty, Nameth and Marlow combined for a passing play in tight where Marlow was able to finish off the goal mouth feed to make it 3-2. Payton Matsui returned the favour and set up Jake Mclean for his first as a Merritt Centennial just over 2 minutes later to tie the game at 3. Kagan capped off the come back with a snipe short side high blocker on Shell to make it 4-3. Then he completed the hat trick by battling out of the corner and scoring into the empty cage to cement the come back win for the Centennials. Carter Woodside picked up his first BCHL win in his first BCHL start, and even tallied a point. Final shots were 39-28 Merritt.
After the game, Head Coach Derek Sweet-Coulter says the team has to keep working on the process and the results will continue to come.
“We keep preaching compete, going to the hard areas, playing the full 60, and the boys are starting to buy in. We saw some goals scored in tight, and guys paying the price.”
The Cents look to carry the momentum into a 2 game home weekend at the NVMA on Friday and Saturday against the Spruce Kings and Wild.
