Talking Cents: Progress made, as Cents snap five game winless skid on Sunday

The Merritt Centennials winless drought is over.

The expansion KIJHL hockey team needed a shootout on Sunday to defeat the Kelowna Chiefs 2-1 for their first win in five games, since the Cents opened the regular season in Quesnel on September 20.

“Each and every game we are seeing improvements,” said Cents Head Coach Wes McLeod. “Each day we see progress as I the guys get more familiar with each other and mesh as a hockey team.”

The Cents are in the midst of their second consecutive week of playing three games in four days which will wrap up on Tuesday night when the Cents host the Sicamous Chiefs at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena (NVMA)

Merritt opened weekend action at the NVMA dropping a 5-3 decision to the Kimberley Dynamiters on Saturday night.

The Cents jumped out to an impressive 3-1  first period lead but could not maintain that momentum as the experienced Dynamiters rallied to tie the game in the second periods and put it away with a pair of goals in the final period.

“We deserved a better outcome against Kimberley,” Cents forward Tyler Originato said. “We had a few breakdowns in our own end and some undisciplined penalties that eventually came back to haunt us in the end.”

The Cents got goals from Steven Foster (3), Dylan Ruff (2) and Sam Giangualano (3) on Saturday night while Mathis Perron made 30 saves in a losing effort.

On Sunday, after a scoreless first period against Kelowna, Steven Foster scored his fourth of the season to break the scoreless tie at 3:31 to give the Cents the lead which held up until Kaiden Sydenham tied it with a wrist shot that beat Cents goalie Andrew Krakora  at the 14:05 mark.

The third period and overtime solved nothing so a shootout was needed to decide the winner.

The Cents scored on two of three shots (Dylan Ruff and Sam Giangualano) while Andrew Krakora stopped two of the shots he faced to give the Cents the victory.

The Centennials are back in action on Tuesday night at the NVMA when the Sicamous Eagles come to town for another divisional match-up.  The Cents Trail the Eagles by two points for third in their division however Sicamous has one game in hand.  Game time is 7 p.m. on Tuesday.