With their third game of the week the Smoke Eaters looked to wrap up the weekend with all six points against a Merritt team that was desperate for a win.
The Smoke Eaters spent a majority of the first period on the penalty kill as they were assessed five penalties, including a 58 second 5-on-3 they had to kill. The penalty killers got their work out with Powell Connor and Max Kryski (just to name a few) came up with big shot blocks in the first. The Centennials would score however on the power play with a mad scramble on top of Logan Terness, the puck finally found its way in to give the Cents a 1-0 lead. The Smoke Eaters, once off the penalty kill, went the other way and scored two in the final minute of the first. With 53 seconds left Cody Schiavon scored his eighth of the year as he beat the AP goaltender Blake Pilon from the right point. The Smoke Eaters scored then with just 7 seconds left as Kent Johnson dug the puck out of the right corner and found Diarmad DiMurro unmarked in the slot.
In the second the Smoke Eaters continued to push the pace as the two teams traded chances. The Smoke Eaters out shot the Centennials 16-12 and outscored them 2-1 to take a 4-2 lead to the 2nd intermission. The first goal of the period came from Michael Colella as the Cents turned the puck over inside their own blue line to one of the top scorers in the BCHL. Colella who made no mistake picked the corner on Pilon making it 3-1. The Cents closed the gap again with a power play goal from Chase Nameth who redirected a point shot past Terness making it 3-2. Then Kryski pulled off a little face-off magic. As Johnson has done a few times this year, Kryski won the draw forward and was able to pass off to Braden Costello for his 11th of the year, and the eventual game winner.
In the third the Smoke Eaters would have loved to score a few but managed the game well. Merritt did get a fortunate bounce off Terness early in the third to close the gap to 4-3, but were unable to push much more than that to try and tie the game.
Terness who picks up win number 22 faced 38 shots in the win. The Smoke Eaters will enjoy a short break now before they get back to work for a weekend set down in Wenatchee against the Wild next weekend.
