Battle of winless teams goes to Cowichan as Cents fall to 0-6

The script was already written before puck drop Sunday night. The 0-5 Merritt Centennials versus the 0-6 Cowichan Valley Capitals, something had to give.

The first period wouldn’t see much action on the scoresheet, as neither team was able to bulge the twine. The Cents were able to kill off the only penalty of the opening frame when Josh Olson went off for tripping at the 14:08 mark.

John Hicks would stop all eight shots he saw in the first period.

The offense came quick in the middle stanza as David Jacobs would beat Hicks high blocker side to open the scoring.

Then at the 9:04 mark, on a Jerzy Orchard slashing penalty, Massimo Lombardi would feed Luck Haymes backdoor who would make no mistake giving the Caps a 2-0 lead.

The Cents would get one back right before the end of the 2^nd as Walker Erickson would catch up to a loose puck on the breakaway, slam on the breaks in front of Ben Montgomery and finish on his backhand after a nifty little deke. The score after 40 minutes 2-1. Hicks stopping 21/23 through two.

The third period would be one sided and unfortunately for Cents fans, Merritt wasn’t on the right side.

Cowichan would pour on the offense in the final 20 minutes scoring three times to ice the game.

Adam Jeffery would score twice for Cowichan in the third to open the game up before David Jacobs put it to bed at the 15:29 mark, making it a 5-1 final.

Hicks stopped 28/33 in the game.