Photo Credit: Garrett James and Mike Hockley
The Merritt Centennials (17-9-0-1) take to the road to face the Trail Smoke Eaters (10-12-4-2) in a battle of division rivals tonight.
The Cents are coming off a week where they went 2-1. The week kicked off with a 3-2 loss at home to the Wenatchee Wild – Matt Kopperud picked up both goals in the loss. The Cents followed that up with a 3-2 victory at the surprisingly stingy Shaw Centre against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. This time it was Nick Granowicz’s time to shine as he collected 2 shorthanded goals and an assist to see the Cents past the backs. The weekend finale was back at home where the Cents handled the Smoke Eaters in their first meeting of the season and won by a score of 4-2.
It’s rare, but not unheard of, to face the same two teams on back to back weekends, but that’s what the Cents will do. They’ll look to replicate their 4-2 win last Saturday as they outworked the Smokies for the victory. Nick Wicks, Rylan Van Unen, Ben Ward, and Brendan Schneider all tallied for the Cents as they’ll try to put together another 3 game win streak tonight. A week after the powerplay had it’s best weekend of the season going 7/12, it had one of it’s worst weeks of the season going 1/16. The Cents have had a long week of practice to prepare for this rematch – we’ll see if the practice pays off tonight.
The Smoke Eaters made the long trek to Prince George for a mid-week match up in between facing the Cents. The 10-hour one-way journey didn’t pay dividends as the Smoke Eaters were upended by the best defensive team in the BCHL 4-1. Smokies netminder Adam Marcoux had a solid game to keep his team in it, but with just 17 shots in the game the Smokies couldn’t generate enough offense.
Matt Kopperud continues to serve a 4-game suspension for his hit on Hudson Schandor last Friday in Salmon Arm. Brad Cocca continues to lead the team and is 3rd in BCHL scoring with 39 points, Nick Granowicz is 4th with 37, and Mathieu Gosselin is 11th with 32.
The Smoke Eaters are led by newly acquired forward Chase Stevenson and Captain Braeden Tuck with 24 points while Carter Jones has 23.
Players to Watch:
Centennials – #29 Brett Roloson (2G,2A): The young forward for the Cents is seeing some extra ice time in the absence of Matt Kopperud as he centres Brendan Schneider and Rylan Van Unen. His work ethic has been on display in the last number of games, using his speed to get pucks quickly up ice, and back check to be back in sound position defensively. He’s a pot that’s ready to boil over.
Smoke Eaters – #14 Diarmad Dimurro (0G,18A): The smooth skating defenseman for Trail had his feet on display against the Centennials in the last outing. He can make the first man miss, and then skate the puck up ice to start the offense. He hasn’t bulged the twine yet this season, but he’s a good puck distributor for the Smokies.
Special Teams:
Powerplay Penalty Kill
Smoke Eaters – 21.6% (2nd) Smoke Eaters – 76.2% (14th)
Cents – 18.2% (11th) Cents – 76.1% (16th)
Goaltending: Austin Roden comes in with the hot hand winning his last 3 starts. Vincent Duplessis had won 3 in a row before being stopped by the Wild last wednesday.
Cents:
Austin Roden – 11-5 .894 SV% 3.51 GAA 1 shutout
Vincent Duplessis – 6-3-1 .908 SV% 3.23 GAA
Smoke Eaters:
Adam Marcoux – 8-12 .888SV% 3.35 GAA
Tanner Marshall – 2-4 .884SV% 3.22GAA
Head Coach Joe Martin hopes that with a long week of practice, the Cents will be prepared for the Smokies.
“There’s some things we will work on, including the powerplay, to be ready for the Smoke Eaters, but it all comes back to our game plan and how we execute.”
Puck Drop 7pm. Pre-Game 6:45 on Hockey TV and Q101.ca with Jared Thomas.
