The Newfoundland Growlers will be going after some big fish in the ECHL final.
It will be the Toledo Walleye facing the Growlers in the best-of-seven Kelly Cup championship series, which begins this weekend at Mile One Centre in St. John’s.
The Walleye earned their berth in the final with a 6-2 win over the Tulsa Oilers in Game 7 of the Western Conference final Wednesday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Newfoundland had advanced by prevailing over the Florida Everblades 4-1 in the Eastern Conference series.
The Growlers have home-ice advantage in the final which begins with games Saturday and Saturday nights (7 p.m. starts at Mile One). Because of the distance between Ohio and Newfoundland, the series has adopted a 2-3-2 schedule, with Games 3, 4 and 5 (the latter if necessary) set for Toledo on May 29 (Wednesday), May 31 (Friday) and June 1 (Saturday).
Should the series go further than that, Game 6 and 7 are set for Mile One on June 4 and 5 (Tuesday and Wednesday).
These will be the first-ever meetings between the Growlers and the Walleye, who are the ECHL affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. Newfoundland’s inaugural regular-season schedule was almost exclusively against Eastern Conference teams.
