If the Newfoundland Growlers are to capture the ECHL championship, it will happen at home.
The Growlers dropped a 3-2 decision to the Toledo Walleye Saturday night, leaving Newfoundland with a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Kelly Cup final, which will finish up next week at Mile One Centre in St. John’s.
Game 6 is set for Tuesday night, and if the Walleye push the series to the full distance, Game 7 would be Wednesday. Both games have 7 p.m. starts.
The Walleye entered Saturday as a desperate team after a 4-2 loss the previous night, but gained some breathing room when they got the game’s opening goal just 2:27 after the opening faceoff. After that, they never trailed in what would be their last home game of the 2018-19 season.
Tyler Spezia got Toledo’s early goal, although the Growlers evened things up before the end of the opening frame when Marcus Power scored his fourth of the playoffs.
Newfoundland looked to have a good chance to take the lead midway through the middle frame when Dylan Sadowy became the third straight Walleye to be tagged with a slashing minor, but the resulting power play backfired when Ryan Obuchowski scored a shorthanded marker for the home side. Less than two minutes later, Toledo captain A.J. Jenks scored what would prove to be the game-winner.
The Growlers did have a response before the end of the second period as Zach O’Brien scored his 16th goal of the playoffs, one short of the ECHL single post-season record.
But that would be it for scoring in the game.
Newfoundland did get another power play just before the nine-minute mark of the third, but did little with it to finish the game with a goal in five man-advantage chances, except for the one that was scored against them.
The Growlers never even got a chance to put goalie Michael Garteig on the bench for an extra attacker in the late going; when they attempted to do so, things went awry, and they were nabbed for too many men on the ice.
The Growlers return home via Toronto today.
Dog Bites
O’Brien also drew an assist on Power’s goal, pushing his playoff-leading points total to 30 (16G, 14A) … Shots on goal in Game 5 were 30-25 in favour of Newfoundland … Neither team scored on the power-play, with Toledo finishing zero-for-four … For a third straight game, the Growlers-Walleye matchup drew a Huntington Centre record crowd, as 8,558 showing up Saturday … Through the first five games of the series, each team has scored 13 goals … Despite the closeness of the score in what was largely an evenly played game, all three stars Saturday were members of the Walleye, with Jenks, Spezia and goaltender Pat Nagle going 1-2-3 … The ECHL released a statement prior to Saturday’s game clarifying its position regarding the Kelly Cup championship trophy still in the possession of the two-time defending champion Colorado Eagles. Martin Lind, owner of the Eagles, who joined the AHL this off-season, claims his team had made several unsuccessful attempts to return the Kelly Cup, but that was refuted by Saturday’s statement from the league: “Despite a confirmed plan with Eagles’ management to return the Kelly Cup to the ECHL in December 2018, the arrangement was not fulfilled,” read the release. The ECHL commissioned a replacement trophy, which was in place for Saturday’s game, a potential closeout contest for the Growlers …
Twitter: telybrendan
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