It was a tough weekend for the Cranbrook Bucks, which opened their home schedule with a pair of losses against the Merritt Centennials at Western Financial Place.
The Herd went the distance on Saturday night, coming up just short in overtime with a 5-4 loss, while Friday’s affair was settled at 4-2 in favour of the Cents.
Zachary Losier completed the hat trick a minute into overtime, as Merritt picked up the second win in a row in the East Kootenay.
Julian Frias opened the scoring in the first period, putting the Herd up by one after 20 minutes.
In the second period, Nathan Taylor and Dylan Lariviere tallied for the Cents, with Oskar Cederqvist also finding the back of the net to knot the contest heading into the final frame.
Noah Urness evened up the score late in the third period, following a pair of goals from Cent’s Losier and Bucks defenceman Bryce Sookro.
Danick Leroux made 33 saves in goal for The Herd, while Andrew Ballantyne made 35 saves for Merritt.
Earlier on Friday, Merritt scored four unanswered goals en route to a 4-2 win over the Bucks to kick off the BCHL schedule at Western Financial Place.
Jacob Smith and Losier scored in the first period, followed up by Luke Melnik and Timothy Kim early in the second.
Jacob Fletcher put the Bucks on the board, scoring the first home goal of the season by scooping up a rebound and circling the back of the net to stuff home a wraparound.
Unress added an unassisted marker halfway through the third period as the Bucks’ comeback attempt fell short.
Both Leroux and Carter Capton shared netminding duties; the former with 29 saves and the latter with seven stops.
The Bucks put a ton of shots on Cents goalie Karlis Mezsargs, who made 44 saves for the win.
As far as standings go, there’s lots of time to for movement up and down, but with only a six-game sample size, the Bucks currently sit in seventh place with five points.