SURGING CENTS SINK SMOKIES

By Jim Bailey | Trail Times     The surging Merritt Centennials defeated the Trail Smoke Eaters on Tuesday in a 5-3 victory at the Cominco Arena.   Merritt has Trail’s number this year. Following a Trail OT win in their opening match of the season, Merritt has won three straight games from the Smoke Eaters in the past month including a 4-0 victory in their last visit on Dec. 2.   For the third straight game, Cents’ goalie Jacob Berger was the biggest roadblock holding the Smoke Eaters scoreless for 111 minutes, and making several big saves through the first two periods on Tuesday to keep the Smokies off the board.   The Cents took a 3-0 lead into the third period with goals from Matthew Kopperud, affiliate player Joel Patsey, and Mathieu Gosselin despite being outshot 25-21 through two periods.   The Smoke Eaters recent acquisition, Mack Byers, scored his first goal for Trail, finally beating Berger with nine minutes left on the clock when he converted a Ryan Murphy shot and favourable bounce off the back board for the Smokies first tally to cut the lead to 3-1.   However, Zach Zorn netted the winner, jumping on....