Centennials split weekend home-and-home set

MERRITT — The Cents were in tough against the Interior Conference leading West Kelowna Warriors and the Penticton Vees. The risk of dropping both games was there, with the wealth of talent their opponents possessed.

Friday, Nov 3rd: West Kelowna Warriors 4 at Merritt Centennials 6

The Cents started the weekend off on the right note, sending their Interior rivals packing in a strong showing for the home side Merritt crowd. West Kelowna scored the opening goal as Lokkeberg scored his fifth goal of the season to make it 1-0 Warriors. Michael Felsing would tie it at 1-1 just two minutes later, he would finish the game with a goal and assist. The Warriors would retake the lead early in the 2nd period as Callum Hughes got his fourth of the year on the powerplay to make it 2-1.

That would be the Warriors final lead of the night.

The Centennials would explode for four unanswered goals to turn a 2-1 deficit into a commanding 5-2 lead. The Warriors to nobodies surprise would storm back cutting the lead to 5-4 in the final minutes. Ryan Spinale would ice the game with an empty netter as he finished the game with a goal and assist.

Ranvir Gill-Shane had 2 assists, Dylan Lariviere was a goal away from a hat trick and Dylan Wegner finished with a goal and assist himself. Mezsargs finished with 29 saves on 33 shots as both teams were dead even at 33 shots each by the final buzzer.

Saturday, Nov 4th: Penticton Vees 5 at Merritt Centennials 2

Brian Passmore elected to throw Karlis Mezsargs back in net because there is only one game next weekend (Friday, Nov 10th in Vernon.) It was the first time this season Passmore threw in the same goaltender two games in a row.

The first period was close with the Vees outshooting the Cents 14-10. Atilla Lippai scored his 6th of the season to open the scoring, but much like in yesterday’s game the Cents answered back immediately. Jaxson Murray scored his second goal and 4th point in 5 games since returning to the Centennials line up.

In the second the Vees retook the lead on the PP, four minutes later Dylan Wegner would tie things up at 2-2 on the PP. The momentum started to swing in Merritt’s favor with the Vees immediately taking another penalty after giving up the lead. Unfortunately that would lead to a shorthanded goal as the Vees retook the lead at 3-2 and that’s how things would end after two periods of play.

The Cents seemed to run out of steam in the third period as Simon Meier’s two goals would put the game away, final score 5-2 for the Penticton Vees. The shots were 39-22 Penticton as they have been more dominant over Merritt at the NVMA than in Penticton.

The Cents return to practice then will have their hands full with another tough opponent Friday in Vernon. The Vipers are blowing out teams left right and center lately. Aside from their 4-1 win over Merritt, a game where the Cents outshot the Vipers 40-25, Vernon has won 8-1, 8-0 and 10-2 of late. Of course those were all against mid to bottom teams, they do have a 7-3 loss to Surrey sprinkled in there.

Merritt at Vernon, Friday at 7 p.m. live on Q 1-0-1.