Growlin' To A Championship

Feast your eyes, folks, on the latest Toronto-affiliated team to win a championship. The Marlies pulled off the feat last season in the AHL, and now the Maple Leafs' ECHL affiliate in the Newfoundland Growlers have won the Kelly Cup after a six-game series victory over the Toledo Walleye. The party on the Rock at Mile One Arena in St. John's was boisterous as the hometown Growlers downed Toledo 4-3 to capture Canada's first-ever ECHL championship, and there was no shortage of fan support from the Newfoundland faithful in supporting their pro hockey team just as they had done for all the previous teams that called St. John's home. The difference? This time ended with a trophy being hoisted above the ice for the home side!

Growlers owner Dean MacDonald gave a ton of credit to the fans who came out and supported the team. The fans poured out of the arena and honked car horns and cheered loudly on the streets for their team as they brought home the first-ever professional championship to the province. For an ECHL team, the fan support means life or death in most cases, and it's pretty clear that the fans in and around St. John's, Newfoundland are pretty special considering how they've supported various AHL teams throughout the years before getting their new ECHL franchise this year. Clearly, the hockey market in St. John's is a loyal and passionate one, and the fans do indeed deserve a ton of credit for their support.

"I can't describe it, I cannot describe it, so good, we finally won the cup," Donna Brown, who has not missed a single home game, told the CBC. "It's amazing. It's the loudest I have ever heard at Mile One. It is fantastic."

For the historians out there, four of the six games in the final were decided by one goal with Games One and Two needing overtime to reach a final - Newfoundland won both, it should be noted. Newfoundland defeated the Brampton Beast in six games, the Manchester Monarchs in six games, the Florida Everblades in five games, and the Toledo Walleye in six games to claim the Kelly Cup. Despite being outscored 18-13 against Brampton in the opening round, including an 8-2 loss, Newfoundland eliminated the Beast. They then outscored Manchester 20-11 in winning that series before really putting the defence on display as Newfoundland grounded the Everblades in outscoring them 20-6 in those five games that included three shutouts. In the final, Newfoundland outscored Toledo 17-16 in winning the Kelly Cup.

In the entire playoffs, the Growlers only trailed once in a series - 1-0 to Manchester - while winning two-or-more games in a row in a series five separate times. Winning back-to-back games obviously puts your opponent at a disadvantage in seven-game series, and it was these runs that really helped to power the Growlers through the playoffs. They opened the playoffs against the Beast with three-straight wins before winning in six games. They won three-in-a-row after dropping Game One against Manchester, eventually winning in six games. They book-ended a Game Three Florida win with two wins in both Games One and Two and Games Four and Five to eliminate the Everblades. And they opened the final with two wins against Toledo before alternating wins to capture the Kelly Cup in six games. Winning in bunches makes life easier in the playoffs, and the Growlers went on mini-streaks in each series including winning six of seven games from Game One in the Florida series to Game Three of the Kelly Cup Final.

Among the players who celebrated tonight were four men who were born in the province of Newfoundland - captain James Melindy, assistant captain Adam Pardy, Zach O'Brien, and Marcus Power. Power and O'Brien are from St. John's while Melindy hails from Goulds and Pardy calls Bonavista home. O'Brien led all ECHL players in playoff scoring with 29 points, and he was named as the winner of the June M. Kelly Playoffs Most Valuable Player Award. O'Brien also tied the record for the second-most goals in a playoff campaign with 16, one back of the all-time record set by Richmond's Blaine Moore in 1995 and equalled by Peoria's J.F. Boutin in 2000. Melindy only had one assist in the 23 games he played, but the captain is wearing the letter on his chest for everything else he does on and off the ice for the team. Power scored four goals and added 11 helpers in 21 games, and Pardy recorded four assists in 22 games.

Where this good news story takes a bit of a detour is that there was a rumour that Adam Pardy was likely to retire at age 35 after suffering a serious concussion Sweden the year before if the Growlers won the Kelly Cup. With the Kelly Cup now calling St. John's home, will the big defenceman call it a career? Here's hoping he doesn't, but if he does he's had a heckuva career with NHL stops in Calgary, Dallas, Buffalo, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Nashville before finally returning home. If he can play a season or two more and raise the profile of the sport even more, Adam Pardy would be a great ambassador for hockey on the Rock. If he decides he's had enough, he'll still be one of the bets players to hail from Newfoundland while still being a great ambassador.

After all the numbers and stats and hoopla surrounding this win has died down, I'm happy for the fans of the Growlers. St. John's has seen its fair share of almost-wons with the AHL teams that have called the island home, but they've never had a championship parade in any sport snake through the downtown area. They'll finally get one thanks to the Growlers, a team that Kyle Dubas' fingerprints are on. If only the one that he's in charge of daily could find the same push as the AHL Marlies and the ECHL Growlers - back-to-back championships for the Leafs' affiliates! - maybe they'd eventually break the curse of 1967 in Toronto.

Congratulations to the Newfoundland Growlers, your 2019 ECHL Kelly Cup champions!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!