The Merritt Centennials were looking to avenge their opening night loss against the Wenatchee Wild in their first road game of the season, but couldn’t manage to replicate the effort of last night in a 5-2 loss.
Once again it was a shaky start by the Centennials who fell behind early after Matt Dorsey skated the puck into the zone and drove the slot of the Wild. The Cents fended him off, but the puck was loose in the danger zone, and Dallas Farell found it first and beat Ryan Winter down low to make it 1-0. The Cents then went to the penalty kill and the Wild, despite only scoring once on the powerplay all year were able to set up a goal from Trevor Greibel to make it 2-0. The Wild did their best to keep play in the Centennials side of the ice for the majority of the period, and majority of the game as after 1 the shots were 16-8 in their favour.
The 2nd period began with the Cents in the box again, and they were able to kill off the penalty, but went right back to the box afterwards. As the Wild powerplay expired their leading scorer, Nick Cafarelli was left alone to the side of the net and he walked in and sniped top shelf to make it 3-0. The Cents were able to answer just 19 seconds later after Vincent Guy caused a turnover, Brett Roloson collected the puck and found a streaking Daniel Tkac who went up and over the hulking Noah Altman to make it 3-1. Despite getting a goal in the period the Cents would only muster 5 shots on net, and the shot totals after 2 were 35-13 in favour of the Wild.
The final frame began with the Wild drawing another penalty, but this time the Cents pressured on the penalty kill and caused a 2-on-0 breakaway and despite Van Unen firing it wide, the Cents kept digging for the loose puck forcing the Wild defender to cover his hand over the puck. It led to a Cents penalty shot, and just like in the preseason, Daniel Tkac pulled off a ‘no-move’ from the hash marks and dangled late to get it past the toe of Altman and make it 3-2. The Cents had an opportunity to salvage the game after getting thoroughly out shot, but another late penalty gave the Wild another opportunity and Cafarelli got his 2nd of the game. Captain Brian Adams iced the game with an empty netter for the Wild and the Cents fell 5-2. Winter made 47 saves on 51 shots against in the losing effort, and the Cents were outshot 52-19.
After the game, Assistant Coach Derek Sweet Coulter said that the Cents may not always get the result they want every night, but two things can’t be left in doubt.
“There’s chances that miss here and there, and there’s bounces that don’t go your way, but two things that are always in your control are your effort and your attitude and I don’t think we brought the right amount of either tonight.”
The Cents look to reset ahead of a mid-week matchup against the Coquitlam Express on Wednesday night.
