The Merritt Centennials (6-15-1-0) welcome the Prince George Spruce Kings (10-13-2-3) to the NVMA tonight.
The Centennials are coming off a weekend split where they had their best period of the season against the Surrey Eagles, but one of their worst overall performances the night previous against the Victoria Grizzlies. The Cents came into last weekends action feeling pretty good after taking 3 of 4 points from the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, but they couldn’t convert the swagger into energy on the ice against Victoria. The Cents found themselves in a 2 goal hole early, and couldn’t dig themselves out in the game. Hunor Torzsok scored his first goal as a Cent, Talon Zakall scored his second of the season, and Josh Kagan stayed hot for the Cents but ultimately the team would fall 6-3 to the Grizz. The following afternoon against the Eagles, it looked like the Cents had run into a hot goaltender after being held off the score sheet for 2 periods of play. However, in the third the Cents offense finally broke through. By crashing and banging in front of the net, Kagan was able to quickly flip a puck up high over Shell, then Wyatt Marlow tallied his second goal of the year on the rush, Jake McLean scored his first as a Cent, then Kagan would snipe one top corner short-side before adding an empty netter as the Cents scored 5 goals in the third to march all the way back to win.
The Spruce Kings are coming in after seeing a two game win streak snapped by the Nanaimo Clippers earlier in the week. The game was a tight 2-1 defeat. Earlier in the week they won 4-3 against Alberni Valley and 5-2 against the lowly West Kelowna Warriors. In their last 5 the Spruce Kings are 2-2-1 as are the Centennials.
These teams met twice in the pre-season. Prince George won their game on home ice, and the Cents were able to get past the Spruce Kings at the NVMA in thrilling shootout fashion.
The Cents continue to be paced by Josh Kagan who is now just outside the league’s top 20 with 24 points. Payton Matsui and Daniel Tkac aren’t far behind with 16 points each.
Nick Poisson leads the way for Prince George with 30 points, and is 11th league wide. Chong Min Lee has 24 points, and Corey Cunningham has potted 22.
The special teams battle favors PG, but the PK for the Cents has looked good in the last few games.
Powerplay: Penalty Kill:
Cents – 6.3% (17th) Cents – 73.2% (15th)
PG – 19.4% (8th) PG – 77.6% (12th)
The battle in the blue paint sees Tanner Marshall looking to rebound with a 3-7 record, an .877 SV%, and a 4.55 GAA. Ryan Winter is 2-8-1 with a .910 SV% and a 3.75 GAA.
Jett Alexander is the goaltender of record from the Prince George Spruce Kings with a 10-11-1 record, a .911 SV%, and a 2.67 GAA. The Cents may see a familiar face on the other side of the ice as Carter Woodside has been signed by the Spruce Kings. He is 1-0 with a .892 SV% and a 3.00 GAA.
Derek Sweet Coulter says the Cents need to keep moving forward.
“We are seeing the process starting to yield results now, we just need to keep working at it, and keep getting better.”
The Cents will look to march towards the win tonight.
Puck Drop 7pm from the NVMA. Pre-Game 6:45 with Jared Thomas and Michael Reeve on Q101.
Be sure to be at the game and pick up a program as Snap on Tools is giving you a chance to shoot to win for $500, and if the Cents score in the first 25 seconds of the 3rd period Persistence Training Centre is giving you a chance to win $10,000!
