“We learned valuable lessons”: McLeod on Centennials playoff run ending

The Merritt Centennials inaugural season in the KIJHL is over.

The first year franchise playoff run came to an end on Friday night after the Revelstoke Grizzlies scored three times in the third period to squeak out a 3-1 win to take the series 4-1 at the Forum in Revelstoke.

Despite the early exit, Centennials head coach Wes McLeod was proud of what the team was able to accomplish in year one.

“I’m really proud of these guys, they left it all on the ice this season and it bodes well for junior hockey in Merritt,” McLeod said. “We have a really young nucleus of players here and many are eligible to return next year if we find a way to make it work.”

The Centennials finished third in the KIJHL’s Bill Ohlhausen Division during the regular season with a 26-13-3 -2 record in 44 games and made the playoff facing the defending league champion Revelstoke Grizzlies in the divisional semi-final.

“We knew this would be a very tough series as Revy (the Grizzlies) has such depth in their lineup with a lot of playoff experience,” McLeod explained. “For nearly everyone on our team this was the first taste of the KIJHL playoff atmosphere. We learned some valuable lessons this series.”

There were plenty of highlights for the Merritt Centennials in season number one. After opening the 2024-25 season with a 2-6 record, the Centennials made some key acquisitions in defenseman Alex Cordero and sniper Maxim Radmanovich in early October which paid dividends as the Centennials went  10-5 from October 11 to November 29 to establish itself as a team nobody took lightly in any game.

“When we began building this team last April, we built it from the ground up,” said Cents General Manger Brad Anstey. “Once we hired Wes McLeod, we began a relentless pursuit of players we thought would fit the mold of what a Merritt Centennial should be. Between myself, Wes, Vice President Dan Schofield, and assistant coach Henry Acres we must have called almost 400 hockey players to see if there was interest in playing in Merritt.”

Offensively the Centennials were lead by 18-year-old Calgary native Sam Giangualano who amassed 25 goals and 28 assists in 41 regular season games while notching four more assists in the playoffs. Line mate Steven Foster (18 yrs old)  from Abbottsford was second in team scoring with 24 goals and 28 helpers in 42 games.

Between the pipes, the Cents boasted one of the leagues best 1-2 tandems, in Andrew Krakora and Matt Perron. Krakora posted a 11-8 record while picking up two shutouts and a goals against average of 2.42 goals against average and a save percentage of .931 while Perron went 15-5 during the regular season with a goals against of 2.87 and adding a shutout to his KIJHL resume.

“Our goalies gave us a chance to win every night,” Wes McLeod noted.” As a coach the easiest part of the job was who is was in goal because whoever we started, we knew they would give us a great performance.”

Don’t worry Cents fans, the 2025-26 KIJHL season starts in six months.