The Growlers have championship fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell

The Newfoundland Growlers are back in St. John's, and tonight they have a chance to win the ECHL championship against the Toledo Walleye on sold-out home ice.

It's a situation that's cost team owner Dean MacDonald some sleep loss due to nervousness.

"I've become a cliché machine," MacDonald told The St. John's Morning Show. "This whole sports thing is something new to me." 

The players have the good kind of nerves, he said — "You want to have butterflies before a game, makes you play better" — but in his position, all he can rely on is small superstitions like wearing the same outfit to each game, and sitting in the same seat each time. 

But the team is excited, MacDonald said, and player Scott Pooley agreed.

"Obviously it's a tremendous opportunity, not only for our team," the forward said at practice. 

"We've got the whole province and the city behind us. We're definitely feeling the energy and feeling the love, and we're really excited to get to tonight."

The fan base also appears to be energized. The Growlers were greeted by a crowd of supporters at the bottom of the arrivals escalator at the airport when they returned to St. John's on Sunday night, and MacDonald said it's great to see how support for the team has exploded during their first-season championship run.

"We've seemed to hit a spot in people's minds and hearts, so we're pretty excited."

'The loudest thing I've been in'

But Toledo is also feeling energized, if the noise at their stadium during the fifth game of the series was any evidence.

"In their barn there's 8,500 people. It's the loudest thing I've been in in my life," MacDonald said, adding that he included NHL stadiums in that assessment.  

"You cannot hear yourself think in there."

The team's passionate fan base has a long history with local hockey, he said, and it shows in the small rituals they have during the game: for example, a pause during the national anthem to make noise, or the in-unison heckling of opposing players when they come out of the penalty box.

Overall, it adds up to a fun atmosphere at the Walleye games, and MacDonald hopes Growlers fan can replicate some of that — at least the noise — at home. The team is encouraging fans to bring noisemakers to Game 6 on Tuesday night: air horns aren't allowed, but cowbells, buckets and homemade contraptions are all fair game.

Pooley said he's not worried about Growlers fans living up to the standard set in Toledo.

"I think their fans are great, but I think ours are better," he said. 

"I know they're going to bring the energy tonight, and it's going to be a hard environment for [Toledo's players] and it's definitely going to be an energy feeder for us."

And despite the high stakes of the Growlers' time in Toledo, MacDonald said everyone with the team was treated well. Seats were made available for the opposing team's fans at Mile One, so there should be a few Walleye jerseys in the stands among the more than 6,000 expected to be in attendance.

"At the end of the day, sports tends to bring people together, not apart."

Kelly Cup controversy

The Growlers have two chances to win the ECHL's Kelly Cup: one Tuesday night and another, if necessary, on Wednesday night.

Head coach John Snowden says the team knows what they have to do to close the series out, and they're prepared to do just that.

"Understand the opportunity, embrace the moment, prepare for our kind of game tonight," he said of the team's strategy.

But if the team does win, it will actually be a replica cup that gets hoisted at Mile One. The previous Kelly Cup is the subject of a dispute between the league and the Colorado Eagles, who won it last season.

The Eagles, who left the ECHL to join the AHL this season, have not returned the Kelly Cup to the league. The Eagles said in a statement that they have attempted to return the cup but that their efforts have been ignored by the league.

The ECHL has created a replacement trophy that will be awarded to either the Growlers or the Walleye this week.

At the end of the day, MacDonald said, the Growlers are fine with hoisting either trophy — they just want to win it.

"If it's a paper cup, we don't care," he said. 

"It'd be great to win something for the province. It's been a tough couple of years around here, and to just have people have something to be proud of would be pretty special."

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