ZHULOV MAKES A DANDY SAVE FOR GROWLERS ( JOE CHASE PHOTO)
S A T U R D A Y
The Newfoundland Growlers completed a three-game sweep against the Adirondack Thunder Saturday night with a 6-3 victory at Mile One Centre before a near sell-out crowd of 6,000 fans.
Brady Ferguson re-directed a bouncing puck behind Evan Cormier for his 23rd goal of the season just 49 seconds in to give the Growlers a 1-0 lead.
Jake Linhart struck for the Thunder with 6:23 to play in the opening period after capitalizing on a two-on-one rush and wristing a shot behind Angus Redmond, but then the Growlers opened the floodgates as they received goals off the sticks of Zach O’Brien, Marcus Power and Justin Brazeau, with his team-leading 27th of the season, in the final 5:22 of the first period for a 4-1 lead after the opening 20 minutes of play.
Adirondack cut the deficit to two when Aza Nazarian one-timed a shot in the back of the Growlers net at the 8:09 mark of the middle frame, and just 2:23 later Robbie Payne beat Redmond five-hole making it a 4-3 game. Giorgio Estephan looked to have scored his first goal since being assigned to the Growlers after a lengthy stint with the Toronto Marlies while on a breakaway, but was robbed by the glove of Eamon McAdam who replaced Evan Cormier between the Thunder pipes in the second period to keep the 4-3 score through two periods.
Zach O’Brien re-stored the two-goal lead at 7:58 of the third period after deking out McAdam and firing it home on his second attempt for his second of the night, and Dylan Vander Esch re-directed a James Melindy point blast 2:47 later for his eighth of the season making it a 6-3 game which held as the final score.
