The wraps came off a young Newfoundland Growlers team Thursday night as the ECHL expansion squad hit the ice for its first-ever game, a preseason contest at the Stephenville Dome, where they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Brampton Beast
The Growlers and Beast will play two more exhibition contests, tonight in Deer Lake and Sunday afternoon in Clarenville.
The youth of the Newfoundland side was on full display Thursday. With former NHLer defenceman Adam Pardy of Bonavista among those not dressed — he’s dealing with a minor injury — the Growlers had just three skaters, forward Zach O’Brien of St. John’s defenceman James Melindy of Goulds and rearguard Alex Gudbranson, who had more than two years of pro play under their belts.
Despite that inexperience, the Growlers carried a 2-1 lead into the third period, but the Beast scored three straight goals to claim the victory.
The winning tally came with just over three-and-a-half minutes left in the game on Brampton defenceman’s Matt Petgrave’s shorthanded breakaway.
Ironically, Petgrave had been a teammate of many of the Growlers just over a week ago. He had attended the training camp of the Toronto Marlies, Newfoundland’s AHL affiliate, along with the majority of the players he was up against in Stephenville. However, the Beast hold the ECHL rights to Petgrave, who attended the Toronto camp on a tryout, and he rejoined Brampton after his release from the Marlies.
Rookies Semyon Babintsev and Kristians Rubins had the Growlers goals, both nifty tallies.
Babintsev, the Russian forward who had scored a couple of times in AHL preseason play, continued to show his offensive prowess at the ECHL level, redirecting an Evan Neugold shot past Beast goaltender Filip Gustavsson midway theough the first period.
Rubin’s marker came in the second, with the Latvian defenceman joining the rush and slipping a backhander into the net on a rebound. The original shot came from tryout forward Jimmy Soper, who is from Waterloo, Ont., but is a second-generation Newfoundlander. His father, St. John’s native Boyd Soper, was at Thursday’s game.
Petgrave’s game-winner was part of a complete set of goals for the Beast, whose other markers came even-strength (by Macoy Erkamps in the first period), on a power-play (Aaron Luchuk in the second) and on an empty-netter (Nathan Todd in the final minute).
Eamon McAdam started in goal for Newfoundland, giving up one goal before giving way to Mike Garteig midway though the second.
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Paid attendance was 1,050, or about two-thirds of the Dome's capacity.
The Growlers play their first-ever ECHL regular-season game a week from tonight at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, where they will face the Florida Everglades, league runners-up last season.
