Newfoundland Growlers finally come ‘home’ to play

ECHL team returns to Mary Brown’s Centre tonight; game will be its first at facility in 634 days

Tonight, for the first time in almost 21 months, the Newfoundland Growlers play in their normal venue on New Gower Street in St. John’s. And those who take in the contest between the Growlers and Worcester Railers at Mary Brown’s Centre will get to see what has undoubtedly been the best team in the ECHL through the early part of the 2021-22 season.

Some will have already witnessed the team play in a home game this fall. The Growlers occupied the Conception Bay South Arena for a half-dozen games in November when they were locked out of Mary Brown’s Centre because of a workplace conduct investigation. But even when sold out, the “homeaway-from-home games” in C.B.S. only drew 1,168 each — less than a fifth of the normal capacity at Mary Brown’s Centre.

However, attendance numbers at the former Mile One Centre will be down for this Growlers’ homestand, which includes games against Worcester Friday and Saturday. The facility’s COVID-19 attendance policy means, for example, most aisle seats will be unoccupied so as to maintain social distancing from people moving about. And the team’s sale of single-game tickets only resumed Monday night.

The Growlers have been preparing for the return to their regular digs since last week, when an agreement was announced allowing the team to use Mary Brown’s Centre during an investigation into harassment allegations made by employees of St. John’s Sports and Entertainment Ltd., which runs the cityowned arena, against staff members of Deacon Sports, which owns the Growlers.

There is no specified timeline for that investigation.

The prep work included seat-shuffling so as to abide by the provincially mandated COVID guidelines — aisle seats are particularly popular among holders of season tickets — but Growlers employees only returned to the arena in the last few days. Still, that was in advance of the team itself, which got back into St. John’s 2 a.m. Tuesday morning after completing a road trip, one that saw the Growlers win all five contests and extend its ECHL record for away victories since the start of a season to nine games.

Given their long travel day Monday, the Growlers didn’t practise Tuesday. So this morning’s game-day skate will be this edition of the team’s first time on the ice at Mary Brown’s Centre this season — the building was not available during training camp and their banishment from the building came before their first scheduled home games.

In fact, except for a handful of players, today will mark the first time any of the Growlers have ever skated at the former Mile One Centre.

Since the ECHL shut down operations in early March of 2020 because of the pandemic, the Newfoundland team — which also opted out of the 2020-21 ECHL season — underwent a massive roster upheaval. Only captain James Melindy, assistants Zach O’brien, Marcus Power and Todd Skirving and injured forward Derian Plouffe played for the Growlers before this season, while Nathan Noel — who has been also sidelined by injury recently — is also familiar with the facility since he’s from St. John’s.

For everyone else on the roster, today will be a brandnew experience and it will be interesting to see how lack of knowledge about their own rink — how the puck comes off the boards, for example — will play into what might already be seen as a sort of a trap game.

Except for a handful of players, today will mark the first time any of the Growlers have ever skated at Mary Brown’s Centre.

Traditionally, first home dates after long road trips — especially with a short turnaround — can be trouble for teams. The “players are people, too” reality means they become distracted by everyday, non-hockey business set aside while they’ve been out of town. Think of what it’s like after coming back from vacation — paying bills, restocking the cupboard, making up for lost time with loved ones and pets — and you get the idea.

There’s also the fact that they are only just now occupying their home rink, so it’s somewhat like moving day, too. What’s more, their opponents arrive with some vengeance packed in their stick bags — the Growlers closed out their recent road swing with a 6-0 thumping of the Railers in Worcester on Sunday.

Then again, it could be suggested that if there is a team that can handle adversity — in whatever forms it’s cloaked — it’s the Growlers.

Some points to ponder:

• Newfoundland’s 13-2-0 record puts it five points up on the rest of the league, and the three teams tied for second in the overall standings have all played more games than the Growlers.

• Newfoundland has the ECHL’S best defensive record, allowing 2.13 goals per game, all while maintaining the second-best offensive output at exactly four goals per contest; in other words, the Growlers have outscored the opposition almost two-to-one.

• The team’s penalty-killing is best in the league (89.1 per cent) and the power play, which had been sluggish in the early going, is now top 10, clicking at a better than 20 per cent success rate.

• The Growlers’ scoring has been widespread — the team’s 60 goals so far have been scored by 22 different players — with Power leading the way with seven. Until recently, no Newfoundland player was among the ECHL’S top scorers, but that changed when O’brien garnered 10 points (5G, 5A) in the last three games, moving him to 21 points, tied for fifth in the league, and earning him the league’s latest player of the week honour.

• After Evan Cormier and Keith Petruzzelli alternated in the early going, Cormier was called on to make six consecutive starts after Petruzzelli was recalled to the AHL’S Toronto Marlies. Newfoundland won all six games, with Cormier posting a 1.82 goals-againstaverage, earning his first shutout of the season and increasing his personal wins total to a league-best nine. Cormier — runner-up in the most-recent goaltender of the week competition — will get a break sometime soon, however, as Petruzzelli, whose 1.60 GAA is the lowest in the ECHL, has been returned by the Marlies.

• As players have been recalled to the AHL or lost to injuries, others have continually stepped up. For example, Orrin Centazzo didn’t play the first two games of the season, but now has 11 points, tied for most among rookies on the team, and is plus-10, the best plus-minus rating among Growlers forwards.

The Railers, who have shown they can be a challenge to their North Division rivals — taking three points in four games against the Growlers — have a 5-8-1 record.

Tonight’s game, which starts at 7 p.m., will be the first ECHL contest in the facility in 634 days, since March 7, 2020, when Newfoundland downed the Adirondack Thunder 6-3. Five days later, while the Growlers were on the road, the ECHL shut down its season.