The Merritt Centennials gave it all from the heart, but the legs and stomach just didn’t have it. A flu-ravaged Cents’ squad went 0-for-4 in a short span of six days, losing a quartet of games to the elite of BCHL teams.

The pain started last Tuesday in Salmon Arm and ended Sunday on home ice against the Surrey Eagles, with contests in between versus the nationally-ranked Vernon Vipers and Penticton Vees.

Centennials’ players, coaches and fans had been looking forward to the four-pack of games with great anticipation. Ten days ago, the Cents enjoyed their best weekend of the season, winning twice on home ice in front of sizable crowds. The team looked to finally be up and running on all cylinders, with a relatively healthy line-up and renewed confidence in their abilities and systems.

Unfortunately, it was only a day later that the flu symptoms began to strike members of the team. At its peak, this past weekend, as many as 17 Centennials’ players were feeling the effects of the virus, were on medication, and were in and out of the line-up on a game-by-game basis.

To add to Merritt’s woes, both of the team’s bright, young goaltending stars were on the shelf for all but one period of the four games this past week. Keith Hamilton and Cole Holowenko are nursing lower body injuries that will keep the talented twosome out of the line-up indefinitely.

Pressed into service between the pipes, on short notice and in very difficult circumstances, were a pair of KIJHL products, 18-year-old Curtis Dagg of the Columbia Valley Rockies and 20-year-old Riley Wall from the Chase Chiefs.

Looking back on the four games played this past week, the Centennials came to compete in every contest but simply couldn’t match their opposition health-wise on the ice. The Cents fell behind early in all four contests, then tried valiantly to keep it close. Sometimes they were successful; on other occasions, the roof just kind of caved in.

Against the Silverbacks one week ago, it was a very respectable two-goal game after 20 minutes, but the Apes scored six times in the middle stanza to win going away, 10-2. Cents’ marksmen, on a night that saw Dagg replace Hamilton in net for the final 40 minutes, were Alex Valenti and Stephen Wall.

It was a double-digit score again three nights later as the Vipers slithered into town and bit the Cents to the tune of 10-4. In a game that was very nearly postponed due to the illness in the Centennials’ ranks, the Snakes scored the first five goals in a span of 21 minutes to put the contest to bed early. Merritt scorers were an ailing Dustin Johnson with two, Valenti and Mitch Jones.

Even though the Cents were far from 100% in the match-up with Vernon, the depth and talent of the Vipers’ team was and is downright scary. The reigning RBC national champions are definitely stronger than last year.

Against Merritt, Vernon was missing the Jones twins, Connor and Kellen, who are at an international U-19 Junior A challenge tournament in Prince Edward Island. The Vipers also rested top-4 defenseman Garrett Noonan, and started young Blake Voth in net instead of their number one goalie, former Centennial Graeme Gordon.

One day later, on Saturday, the Centennials played their pluckiest game of the four in falling to the Vees 4-1 at the brand new South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton. Wall stood on his head in the Merritt net, stopping 38 of 42 shots fired his way.

The Vees were only able to put the puck behind Wall once in each of the first two periods before adding a pair of insurance markers in the final frame. Valenti continued to be a rare bright light in an otherwise dismal week for the Cents, picking up his third goal in as many games.

A weary Merritt squad closed out its ‘rocky horror show’ of a week in a Sunday matinee tilt versus the visiting Coastal-Conference-leading Eagles.

The opening two minutes of the game proved to be the Cents’ undoing as poor defensive play led to two quick goals against.

Captain Jordan Soquila got one back for his Cents’ team with one of the prettiest end-to-end goals scored in the Nicola Valley arena in many years.

The quiet-spoken leader completely undressed no fewer than four Surrey players in his dash up ice before burying a sweet backhander past Eagles’ netminder Vinny Lessard. Jeff Jones got Merritt’s only other goal three minutes into the third, as the visitors went on to win 5-2. The overall play of Wall in the Merritt net was again impressive, as the Kamloops minor hockey product turned aside 41 shots in another busy night.

OVERTIME

The Centennials go into tonight’s game against the visiting Westside Warriors with a 6-13-0-1 record, good for 13 points and seventh place in the Interior Conference of the BCHL. The Warriors, at 12-7-0-0, are in fourth place with 24 points, just two points behind the Silverbacks and eight up on the fifth-place Prince George Cougars. Following Wednesday’s tilt, the Cents don’t play again until next Tuesday when the Vipers come calling once more.

Twenty-four hours before Wednesday’s game, Centennials’ head coach Dylan Forsythe reportsed that nine players are still exhibiting flu symptoms, while another seven are sidelined with injuries: Joey McEwan and Jeff Zmurchyk (concussions), Keith Hamilton, Cole Holowenko and Alex Valenti (lower body injuries) and Kevin Philp (upper body injury).