Ben Ward explodes to lead Merritt to victory

It was the Ben Ward show on Friday night at the NVMA as new longest tenured Merritt Centennial led his team to win number 1 of the season.

In the first period, Ward broke down the right wing wall, beating two Wenatchee players before firing a backhander off the pads of Tyler Shea, working as a perfect pass to Levi Carter who scored his first in the BCHL.

That would be the only marker of the first period. Keegan Maddocks stopped all 11 shots he faced in the first.

Wenatchee came out strong in the middle stanza, with Ean Somaza and Cade Stibbe scoring to take a 2-1 lead.

Just 26 seconds later, Ward would score his first of the night to level the score once again at 2-2.

In the third, Ward would score his second of the night to restore the one goal lead just over one minute in.

Midway through the period Cade Littler scored on the powerplay to make the game 3-3.

Regulation would solve nothing and to overtime the game went.

In the extra frame, none other than Ben Ward skated down the right wing side on a 2-on-1 chance, kept and beat Shea for the winner,

Maddocks would stop 50 of 53 in the contest to collect his first BCHL win.

Cents are back in action Saturday night at home versus Trail.