Wins have been once-in-a-blue-moon occasions this season for the Merritt Centennials
They rolled into Rolling Mix Concrete Arena on Friday with just 10 wins in 51 games since the season started in September. Make that 11 in 52 games.
The Prince George Spruce Kings lacked lustre and paid the price, losing 5-2 to the lowly Cents, who are still hanging in the race for the 16th playoff spot in the 17-team B.C. Hockey League.
Playing in front of their second-largest crowd of the season, the Kings ran into a hot goalie, Ryan Winter, who made 34 saves to earn his fourth win in 26 games. The Cents were outshot 36-19.
“Our goalies on most nights are busy, we’ve got a young D-corps, they’re all 16 or 17 and we know we’re going to make mistakes,” said Cents first-year head coach Derek Sweet-Coulter. “The goalies are really mature about it, they understand they’re going to face probably 40 to 50 per cent of those shots that are high-quality most nights, but they’ve both been true warriors for this team.”
It was the first win of 2020 for Merritt (11-37-1-3-0). The Spruce Kings (17-29-2-4-0) suffered their eighth loss in the last 11 games but have already clinched a crossover playoff spot.
Hoping to recapture the momentum that dug them out of a two-goal third-period deficit Wednesday before succumbing to the Wenatchee Wild in a shootout, the Kings were unable to recover when Merritt scored three goals in the second period to take control of the game.
“It’s super-disappointing to play like that, especially in front of that crowd, it’s tough when we get outworked and some guys don’t show up,” said Spruce Kings captain Nolan Welsh.
“This was a really good opportunity to get some momentum and climb up the standings to get into a good situation for playoffs and that alone should have been enough to motivate everyone but it’s tough to play like that. We know we need to play and I just don’t think we played like that tonight.”
Rylan Van Unen, Evan Benwell and Hunor Torzsok, with his first of two goals in the game, put the Spruce Kings down 3-1. Torzsok took advantage of puck that ticked off a skate and wired a high-slot shot past goalie Carter Woodside for what stood up and the gamewinner.
A late goal just before the intermission from Nick Poisson raised the comeback hopes of the Kings and their partisan crowd of 1,349. But Torszok and the Cents put that to rest with an opportunistic third period.
Payton Matsui tipped in a point shot on a Merritt power play 8:15 into the period for a 4-3 lead and a couple minutes later, while killing a penalty, Matsui took the puck deep and spun to get free of his check. He spotted Torszok breaking for the net all alone and fed him for the tap-in to beat goalie Carter Woodside. Two goals on eight third-period shots sealed it for the Cents.
Haydyn Delorme opened the scoring for the Kings with the only goal of the first period, his second of the season.
“When we only have a certain number of players show up every game it’s disappointing,” said Kings head coach Alex Evin. “It’s amazing that all those people came out to watch us and I’m really thankful that we continue to get support but it’s tough, the chances we give up. We only gave up 19 shots but we turned the puck over all game and that’s not going to bode well for you.”
Two of the Cents wins this season gave come at the Spruce Kings expense. They lost 4-2 in Merritt on Nov. 22. Now with just six games left in the season, Evin wants to see an abrupt turnaround from his team.
“We have to play a simpler game, said Evin. “Guys are trying to do too much out there. The game going to be tight and maybe guys aren’t understanding what kind of hockey we need to play to be successful.
“We don’t score a lot of goals so we have to make sure we’re heavy in our D-zone and are not giving up a lot of chances and we get pucks in deep. Some guys don’t want to play that way and it’s obviously shows in our results. Teams aren’t having a hard time scoring against us right now, it’s everybody as a group out there. We don’t make teams earn their goals.”
It was a disappointing homecoming for Cents defenceman Brophy Dunne. The former Cariboo Cougar, a Prince George minor hockey product, got into a bit of a scrap with Kings winger Wil Kushniryk nine minutes into the game and both players were ejected. Dunne’s early exit left the Cents with just three defenceman and the Van Unen brothers, Rylan and Josh, took their turns on the blueline to fill in.
“We were a little worried about that before the game even started,” said Sweet-Coulter. “We told the boys to watch out for that. If you’re on the other side and know we’ve only got four D, that’s not a bad play.
“I’m not saying they did that on purpose, but it puts us in a tough hole and the guys rallied. We kind of mixed and matched there and found something that worked and didn’t waver from it. It was good enough to get the two points here.”
LOOSE PUCKS: Former King Braiden Epp was bumped up the officiating depth chart from linesman to referee for his first BCHL game calling the shots after a flight cancellation out of Victoria kept the scheduled crew from arriving. Local linesman Jason Mager served as linesman, also donning the stripes for his first BCHL game. .. The Kings will play Tuesday night in Chilliwack, Thursday morning (11 a.m.) in Surrey, then will board a flight for Terrace. They’ll bus to Kitimat, 62 kilometres south, to be part of the BCHL Road Show and will face the Langley Rivermen next Saturday and Sunday at Tamitik Arena.
