ST. JOHN’S, NL – The Newfoundland Growlers have won back-to-back games and improve to 2-1 on the season after a commanding 7-3 victory over the Reading Royals Tuesday night at Mile One Centre.
The Growlers came out of the dressing room buzzing to keep the momentum rolling from Saturday’s win, and James Melindy opened the scoring just 1:38 into the game after firing a bullet up and over Felix Sandstrom’s glove to give the Growlers an early 1-0 lead. Justin Brazeau scored his first pro goal nearly six minutes later extending the Growlers lead to 2-0.
Trevor Yates cut the Royals deficit to one at 9:25 of the first period, after banging a rebound past Maksim Zhukov for a power play goal, but Zach O’Brien responded with a power play goal of his own only 31 seconds later to restore the two-goal lead and a 3-1 score after the first 20 minutes of play.
Scott Pooley roofed a wrister past Sandstrom at 6:05 of the second period to continue the Growlers offense for a 4-1 lead, and Aaron Luchuk fired home his second of the season on the power play with 2:02 remaining in the second period for a 5-1 game.
Colt Conrad continued his hot start to the season just 1:55 into the third period with his first ECHL goal, and Royals Captain Garrett Mitchell and Eric Knodel both registered power play goals in the third period cutting the Growlers lead in half to 6-3.
Scott Pooley responded with his second of the night finishing off a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play with Conrad and Brazeau for a 7-3 final score.
Quick Hits: Evan Neugold made his season debut… Colt Conrad leads the ECHL in points with nine through three games… The three stars were 3 – Z. O’Brien (NFL), 2 – S. Pooley (NFL) and 1 – C. Conrad (NFL)
What’s Next: The Newfoundland Growlers continue their season-opening five-game home stand Friday night against the Brampton Beast, ECHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators. Puck drop is 7 p.m. Newfoundland time (5:30 p.m. Eastern time).
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