The Newfoundland Growlers travelled to Toledo, Ohio on Monday and the team’s passenger list included a name that might surprise those who took in Sunday’s Game 2 of the ECHL Kelly Cup final at Mile One Centre.
Growlers forward John Kestner made the trip the day after being carted off the Mile One ice on a stretcher late in the second period of Game 2 of the ECHL Calder Cup final between the Growlers and Toledo Walleye.
Kestner had been knocked out by a hit from Toledo defenceman Kevin Tansey, who received a five-minute major and a match penalty for an illegal check to the head.
The Growlers, who were trailing 1-0 at the time, would go on to get a tying goal from Scott Pooley in the resulting power play and would eventually win 2-1 when Pooley scored again 16 minutes into overtime. That gave Newfoundland a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which shifts to Toledo for games Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, the latter if necessary.
That Kestner was able to make Monday’s trek, which involved a flight from St. John’s to Toronto and a five-hour bus ride to Toledo, had to be seen as a positive, even if there was no indication from the Growlers that the 25-year-old would be a go for Wednesday’s Game 3, or even available to play in any part of the Toledo portion of the series. However, his mere presence in northwest Ohio would mean that his status at least carries the “wait and see” tag.
That would also seem to apply to Tansey, whose hit on Kestner was said to be under review by the league on Monday.
Meanwhile, there was a lot of debate on social media about the incident, with opinions offered about whether the Walleye defenceman hit Kestner with his upper arm or elbow; whether things had been made worse because Kestner appeared to stumble on the play and was left with his head down; whether Tansey, who moved forward for the hit and raised his arm as he did so, could have held up; whether the hit was “reckless,” “dirty” or simply result of unfortunate convergence of events; whether it was deserving of a major penalty or simply something that should have fallen into the range of a two-minute minor.
Officially, Tansey was cited under Rule 48.5, which says “The Referee at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately attempted to injure his opponent with an illegal check to the head.”
The Walleye will obviously object to any supplemental discipline for Tansey, a 26-year-old Clarkson University product who leads all players in the Kelly Cup playoffs with a plus-12 rating. In fact, Walleye head coach Dan Watson thought that the major handed out Sunday was too stiff an immediate punishment, suggesting the Mile One Centre crowd, which was chanting loudly to have Tansey kicked out of the contest, played a role in the eventual penalty call.
“It was probably a penalty, but not (a major) one,” Watson told Mark Monroe of The Toledo Blade. “The outcome was a factor, Nobody wants to see somebody hurt. I really do hope (Kestner) is OK. But the fans and everything was 100 per cent part of the decision.”
Tansey appeared to show remorse immediately after the incident, tapping his stick along with the rest of the players — Growlers and Walleye — as a conscious Kestner gave the thumbs off as he was stretchered off to the Mile One medical area, where he was put in concussion protocol.
Whether that plays any part in the decision on Tansey’s fate remains to be seen, but it should already be noted he was fined by the league, and in the words of a May 3 ECHL new release, “put on notice for the remainder of the playoffs” for his actions in the first period of Game 4 of a second-round series against the Cincinnati Cyclones.
The league did not specify exactly what Tansey had done in that instance, and the Toledo defenceman hadn’t received an in-game penalty for the transgression, whatever it was. The fine was given out under Rule 28, which relates generally to supplementary discipline “for any offense committed during the course of a game.”
The 6-4, 225-pound Tansey, a native of Hammond, Ont., 39 penalty minutes in 51 total regular-season games in 2018-19, played with Toledo, as well as with Stockton and Grand Rapids in the AHL. He’s never had more than 77 minutes in any season, including his time in junior A and university .
Tansey has two goals, 10 assists and 18 PIMs in 20 Kelly Cup playoff games this spring.
In 18 playoff games, Kestner has 14 points, including eight goals, third-most on the Growlers. Two of his tallies came in Newfoundland’s 4-3 overtime win in Saturday’s series opener, including the game-winner.
Twitter: @telybrendan
———
RELATED:
