“The boys are back in town” Merritt Centennials tie best of seven series 2-2 in front of packed NVMA

MERRITT — As AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson once said “‘The walls were shaking, the Earth was quaking” and that was the scene at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena last night (April 10th, 2024.)

With the Cents playing potentially their final game in the BCHL at home the boys in red white and black won 5-4, sending their best of seven series with the Silverbacks back to Salmon Arm all tied up at 2-2.

Had the Silverbacks won they would’ve gone up 3-1 and had a chance to close out the series at home this Friday.

This win gaurantees a Game 6 this Saturday (April 13th, 2024) at the NVMA.

NVMA | Q101 News

It didn’t take long for the rude hosts to go up 1-0 early on Salmon Arm, as they have done all series long, scoring the first goal in all four games in the series.

Jaxson Murray kicked off a three point night 3:24 in with his 2nd goal of the post season on a feed from Michael Felsing and Keirnan Poulin. The lead would only last 23 second with JJ Monteiro cutting in alone on Andrew Ballantyne to immediately respond for the Silverbacks.

Sam Grabner would helps the Cents retake the lead with his first BCHL playoff goal at 7:16 but once again the lead wouldn’t last very long. Maddux Martin would score his third of the post season just 53 seconds later to tie the game at 2-2 at the 8:09 mark of the first period.

Cents Bench | Joey Jones Photography

Zach Losier would cap off a wild first period with his first BCHL playoff goal at 17:55 and the Cents would take a 3-2 lead to the first intermission behind the roaring crowd at the NVMA.

The second period would see the top line of the Cents go to work. The “Luke Pfoh Show” would get his first goal of the post season to make it 4-2 then Maks Percic would extend the lead to 5-2 on his second point of the night.

The Silverbacks would claw back, cutting the lead to 5-3 and 5-4 but that would be all she wrote as the home side hung on for another nail biting victory in the series.

Three out of four games have been decided by one goal with both teams winning once and losing once in eachother’s barns.

The series swings to the Shaw Centre Friday for a 6 o clock game then returns to Merritt this Saturday for a 7 p.m. game.