Merritt Centennials Weekly Update: Salmon Arm Bound!

MERRITT — Coming off two preseason losses over the weekend the Centennials will hit the road for the first time this year.

As they head to Salmon Arm, their opponents the Silverbacks didn’t fare much better in their first two exhibition tilts against the Vernon Vipers. While the Centennials are looking for their first preseason win, the Silverbacks are still after their first preseason GOAL.

Last weekend for the Centennials? A little sloppy. Brian Passmore shared his thoughts on the effort put forth in the first game, a 6-3 loss to West Kelowna last Friday, September 8th.

“Good intensity I thought we worked extremely hard, you could see a lot of nerves with the players. The mistakes we made were quite glaring, so I wasn’t really impressed with the defensive side of our game.”

The Centennials did outshoot West Kelowna 38-25, a trend not witnessed often at Nicola Valley Memorial Arena.

“We controlled the pace of the play but a few mistakes we made ended up in the back of our net, we’ve got to tighten those things up. Overall I thought it was a good first game.”

Assistant Coach Connor Logan had his own thoughts on Game One.

“I liked our compete and our effort, I think systematically we definitely have some things to work on. We’ve been doing that this week in practice, we’ll clean those things up. I liked the energy hopefully we can keep that up.”

In the second game of the weekend last season’s second best offensive team showed their high octane scoring prowess, as West Kelowna swept the doubleheader in a 5-2 win. The Warriors went up 3-0 early in the first period, Merritt was able to battle back and make it a 4-2 West Kelowna lead before the Warriors iced it with an empty netter. It was a sloppy start to the game according to head coach Brian Passmore.

“Obviously a bad start, puck management wasn’t the greatest but I thought we did a job battling back into the game. Wasn’t pleased that we didn’t get any powerplays, so that was kind of concerning that we didn’t draw any penalties. I think we can be better with the puck and a little bit more cleaner on our assignments.”

The team has been hard at work at practice all week long, looking to clean things up ahead of their home and home versus the Silverbacks. Assistant Coach Connor Logan believes after a couple of  games, main camp and multiple practices the team is starting to feel more comfortable as a unit.

“You get through camp these guys see each other every day, there is a highs and lows but you can tell they are definitely starting to get familiar with one another and getting to know each other.”

Regardless of what happened over the weekend it’s a fresh start for both clubs facing off in Salmon Arm. Logan is looking forward to the team’s first road game together.

“Excited to see how we figure out a road game, another challenge but I’m happy we get to face these challenges early, face the adversity and work as a group to get through it.”

One of the two teams will be winless in their first three games. Brian Passmore added his thoughts on the first road game.

“We wanna be better defensively ourselves, I think the number one thing we wanna do is score the first goal.”

“We’ve got to be a team that is a little smarter. We’re going hard out there but we’ve got to be smarter.”

“I think we’ve gone over our systems all week in practice, we want to be better defensively, we want to control the pace again, control the speed of play and be a little bit more disciplined- not taking more penalties than the other team.”

Merritt plays Friday, September 15th in Salmon Arm at 7 p.m., then hosts the Silverbacks Saturday, September 16th also at 7 p.m. Those will be the final preseason games for the Merritt Centennials.