EVERBLADES HEAD TO NEWFOUNDLAND WITH A 2-1 SERIES LEAD

ESTERO, Fla. – The Newfoundland Growlers scored two goals in each of the first two periods and never looked back, defeating the Florida Everblades 4-1 in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals Monday night at Hertz Arena. Florida suffered its first loss of the series and will take a 2-1 series lead to Canada for Game Four on Thursday.

The night got off to a rough start as Newfoundland scored twice in the opening period after outshooting the Everblades 15-5. Keenan Suthers struck first with a power-play tally at 12:39, while Orrin Centazzo followed with the teams at even strength at 18:33.

In the second period, Newfoundland’s Todd Skirving struck 27 seconds into the frame, while Isaac Johnson added a goal at the 9:18 mark to extend the Growlers’ lead to 4-0. The Blades outshot the Growlers 11-10 in the second frame, which featured extracurricular activity leading to 66 minutes in penalties being meted out in the period’s final minute.

Blake Winiecki got the Everblades on the board at 7:32 of the third period with his seventh goal of the playoffs, as Logan Lambdin and Lukas Kälble picked up the assists. Kälble is the only player on either team to collect a helper in each of the three games.

Florida outshot Newfoundland 31-28. Making his third playoff appearance for the Growlers, Luke Cavallin made 30 saves and evened his playoff record at 1-1 with the victory. Cam Johnson registered 24 saves and fell to 10-4-1 for the Everblades.

An extremely busy night on the penalty front ended with Florida whistled for 118 minutes on 23 infractions, while Newfoundland had 100 minutes on 18 penalties. The 218 combined penalty minutes was a league-high this postseason.

With the first three games of the series in the books, the teams will make the long trip north of the border to the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador for the remainder of the series. Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s will be the site of Game Four on Thursday, May 25 at 5:30 p.m. EDT, while Game Five action is slated for Sunday, May 26 at 2:30 p.m. EDT.

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