ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — John Snowden admits his Newfoundland Growlers may have missed out on an opportunity to put away the Toledo Walleye in Game 5 of the ECHL Kelly Cup final Saturday night in northwestern Ohio, but the upside is the Growlers are returning home needing only one win in two tries to secure a championship in their first year of operation
Trailing the series 3-1, the Walleye forced the series back to St. John’s with a 3-2 win Saturday in Toledo.
“If you look at Saturday night’s game,” said Snowden, the expansion Growers’ coach, “at the end of the day, I thought we out-chanced them for the most part.
“Five-on-five, we were even, neither team scored on the power play, but we ended up giving up a shorthanded goal, and that was the difference in the game.
“I would say, yeah, we had an opportunity to win the series Saturday. But they’re a real good hockey team, and we certainly didn’t go in there expecting to not be put to the wall and have to fight for every inch.
“We’re going to be tested. That’s part of the finals.”
“...they’re a real good hockey team, and we certainly didn’t go in there expecting to not be put to the wall and have to fight for every inch.” — John Snowden
Saturday's result means that if the Growlers are to capture the ECHL championship, it will happen at home. Game 6 is set for Tuesday night at Mile One Centre, and if the Walleye push the series to the full distance, Game 7 would be Wednesday. Both games have 7 p.m. starts.
“It’s a real hard building to play in,” Snowden said of Toledo's loud Huntington Centre, which saw 8,558 fans crammed into the downtown rink. “It was extremely loud, raucous crowd, something we haven’t really seen in this league. I don’t think anybody really has that atmosphere in this league.”
Of course, Snowden is hoping for the home-ice advantage to rub off on his charges Tuesday and Wednesday. The Growlers took the first two games of the series at Mile One by 4-3 and 2-1 decisions, both games going to overtime.
Tuesday's game is already set to be a sell-out, meaning there will be 6,200-plus cheering on the Growlers at Mile One. And the Growlers got an idea of the kind of support they can expect Tuesday when they returned home Sunday night to find placard-waving fans waiting for them in the arrivals area of St. John's International Airport.
“I don’t know why we wouldn’t (have an advantage),” said Snowden. “We have our own crowd behind us, we’re sleeping in our own beds, using our own facilities where we’re in a comfortable setting.
“Just like we had to go into a building where we’d never played before, they have to come into our building where they’d never played before (the start of this series).
“There’s always something to be said having home ice advantage. You can see how it worked for them, and hopefully, it’s the same thing when they come here.”
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