Zach O’Brien continued his torrid scoring pace with three goals, and Michael Garteig stopped 28 shots for his second shutout of the post-season as the Newfoundland Growlers blanked the Florida Everblades 6-0 Friday night at Mile One Centre.
The Growlers lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final 3-1, and can wrap up the East title and punch their ticket to the Kelly Cup ECHL championship series with a win 7 o’clock tonight (Saturday) at Mile One.
O’Brien, from St. John’s, scored his 12th, 13th and 14th goals of the playoffs to pace the Growlers in front of 4,437 fans.
He leads all goalscorers in the playoffs, and his 23 points in 16 games has him tied with Alex Dostie and Stephen Perfetto of the Tulsa Oilers for the league lead.
Garteig, meanwhile, leads all ECHL goalies with his couple of shutouts, 11 wins, 982 minutes played and 472 saves.
Josh Kestner, Giorgio Estephan and Brady Ferguson also scored for the Growlers.
Meanwhile, in the Western Conference final, the Oilers and Toledo Walleye were 2-2 in their series entering Game 5 tonight (Saturday).
