MARINERS OVERPOWERED IN NEWFOUNDLAND

ST. JOHN’S, NFL – January 8, 2019 – In shades of their last Tuesday trip to St. John’s, a rough second period did the Mariners in as they fell to the Growlers by an 8-4 final at the Mile One Center in the first of a two game series. The Mariners made a valiant attempt to climb back from a four goal deficit, but came up short, falling to 0-3-0-0 in Newfoundland this season.

The Mariners got off to a flying start with an early 7-2 shot advantage and the first goal of the game at 3:49 when Jason Salvaggio scored for the second game in a row. Louie Rowe caused a turnover and received the only assist for the first point of his professional career. Josh Kestner tied the game at 12:41 of the period after Brycen Martin dove to keep his first chance out of an empty net. With 49 seconds left in the period, James Melindy hit Garrett Cecere in the face with a blue line shot and Derian Plouffe cleaned up the rebound to give Newfoundland its first lead.

Terrence Wallin, in his first game returned on loan from AHL Hartford, tied the game at two with a beautiful wrist shot at 4:05 of the second. Just 2:10 later, Adam Pardy would open the floodgates for his first of two goals in a row. Pardy scored again at 10:33, forcing Riley Armstrong to call his time out. The Growlers kept coming as Marcus Power scored a highlight reel goal at 14:20 and Alex Gudbranson added another 29 seconds after to make it a 6-2 game. A poor Growlers change led to a 2-on-0 break that led to Greg Chase feeling Ty Ronning at 15:39 to stop the bleeding. With under a second remaining in the period, Drew Melanson tipped Ryan Culkin’s shot to bring the deficit back to two with a power play goal.

In an aggressive coaching move, Armstrong pulled Hannu Toivonen with seven minutes remaining in the third and the Mariners did well to keep possession and generate changes, but finally at 17:27, Scott Pooley found the empty net. A Brady Ferguson power play goal at 18:50 brought the game to its ugly 8-4 final. Eric Levine was the winning goaltender, making 23 saves on 27 shots. Toivonen stopped 25/32.

The Mariners look to salvage their final regular season game at Mile One Center tomorrow with another 5:30 PM ET faceoff. They’ll head to Brampton on Saturday (7:15 PM) and Sunday (2:00 PM) before returning home on Wednesday, January 16th to host Newfoundland at 7:00 PM. Tickets to all home games can be purchased HERE or by calling 207-775-3458.