One more win and the Newfoundland Growlers, who didn't even exist a year ago, will be owners of an ECHL championship.
A goal by Kristians Rubins midway through the third period proved to be the game-winner as expnasion Newfoundland downed the Toledo Walleye 4-2 Friday night ate a jam-packed Huntington Center to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Kelly Cup final.
The Growlers can claim the province’s first-ever professional sports championship with another win tonight in Toledo (9:05 p.m. NT).
Brady Ferguson had two goals while Matt Bradley also scored for Newfoundland.
Greg Wolfe and Bryan Moore replied for Toledo, which must win three straight games to deny the Growlers the league championship in their first season of existence.
If the Walleye win tonight, the series would move back to Mile One Centre in St. John’s, where Games 6 and 7 are scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Friday night in Toledo, Rubins, Ferguson and Walleye defenceman Matt Register were the game’s three stars, but the Growlers will probably point to netminder Michael Garteig’s performance as being key to win.
Garteig made 37 saves Friday, with some of his best work coming in the first half of the third period, when Newfoundland didn’t have a single shot on goal. But at 11:14 of the period, less than two minutes after the Growlers killed off a tripping minor to Josh Kestner, centre Giorgio Estephan made a clever cross-ice pass to Rubins, who fired a shot past Toledo goaltender Pat Nagle. Just three minutes later, Bradley paid the premium on an insurance policy, banking a shot of Nagle to give Newfoundland its first two-goal cushion in the series since the third period of Game 1.
Nagle was pulled for an extra attacker for the last two-plus minutes of Friday’s contest, but the Walleye would do no more scoring.
The game was played before a Huntington Center record crowd of 8,504, just slightly more than the attendance for Wednesday’s Game 3, when Toledo won decisively by a 4-1 score.
But on Friday, the Growlers looked to be a much more determined bunch. That showed in an energetic start, and Newfoundland was rewarded about nine minutes in when Ferguson scored his sixth goal of the playoffs, but first of this series. The Walleye would tie it later in the opening frame, deep into what was a full two-minute five-on-three power play, but Newfoundland moved back in front midway through the second period when Ferguson scored his second of the night. It also came on a power play, this one born of a goaltender interference call against Moore. It as a much-protested penalty — the Walleye claimed it was Garteig who had initiated contact as Moore skated through the top of the crease — and the home side’s chagrin was quickly added to when Ferguson scored just 13 seconds after Moore entered the penalty box.
Moore would get some revenge in the last minute of the second period, scoring his eighth of the post-season against a tired group of Growlers, who couldn’t get off the ice after back-to-back icing calls.
But the momentum that came with Moore’s goal never translated into a go-ahead tally for the home side, and after Garteig and his teammates got through the first half of the third period, they went ahead for a third time — this time to stay — when Rubins scored his first goal of the playoffs.
Dog Bites
Zach O’Brien had assists on both of Fergusons’s goals. That gives O’Brien 27 points and the overall scoring lead in these ECHL playoffs … Estephan also had two helpers …. After missing Game 3 Wednesday because of injury, Kestner returned to the Growlers’ lineup, which meant Todd Skirving went to the press box … The Growlers fired 30 shots at Nagle Friday … The Walleye were one-for-five on the power play, while Newfoundland was one-for-four … Among those in attendance Friday were Growlers’ owner Dean MacDonald and chief operating officer Glenn Stanford as well as Toronto Maple Leafs assistant general manager Lawrence Gilman and Mike Dixon, the director of minor league operations for the Leafs …
Twitter: @telybrendan
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