LET’S CELLY
5 YEARS OF GROWLERS NATION
ZACH O’BRIEN
JAMES MELINDY
ADAM DAWE
PLAYER PROFILE: JORDAN ESCOTT
HEALTHY recipe KIDS CORNER
• JAMES MELINDY
• RECIPE
• ZACH O’BRIEN
• ADAM DAWE
• player profile
• SERIES BREAKDOWN
• KIDS CORNER
When Goulds native James Melindy skated off the ice at the end of the 2022-23 season, he thought he had done so for the final time. Melindy, 30, was in the fortunate position to have already begun transitioning into his post-hockey career, working as a firefighter with St. John’s Regional Fire Department.
After two seasons of juggling the chaos of both professions, in addition to the years of study required just to get to this point, he believed the time had come to leave the game of hockey behind.
“I had no thought of coming back to play,” Melindy admits.
“A few guys reached out and messaged me in the summertime. ‘How many games can we get out of you this year?’ ‘Man, zero. It’s not happening.’”
However, as Melindy sat in the stands at the Mary Brown’s Centre with a beer in hand and watched the Growlers begin the new season with a threegame sweep of the Reading Royals, he realized he may not be quite ready to leave the game behind just yet.
“We had a really good opening weekend and I saw the potential that this team had,” Melindy said.
“It was a bit of a grittier first game with a few fights. I wished I was playing. And then, the team was kind of in a tough spot for defencemen. We were really short at the start of the year.”
That led to a conversation with new Growlers bench boss Matt Cooke. Former Growlers Head Coach Eric Wellwood had been aware of Melindy’s situation and found ways to accommodate his unique 24-hours-on, 72-hours-off schedule. Cooke would be no exception and made Melindy’s return official on October 26, 2023.
“I never thought it was an option at all to even be able to do both,” Melindy said frankly.
“I was at peace with my hockey career with everything being done. Then we ended up working stuff out to come back and I’m super happy that I did. I still love coming down and being around the boys. When you’re used to doing something your whole life and it’s gone, you still miss it.”
Melindy first began pondering his post-hockey career path as his rookie NHL contract expired following the 2015-16 season. Recognizing that hockey careers will only last for so long, he gave considerable thought to
what his options might be for when he hangs up the skates for good, whenever that may have been.
“To be honest, there was a whole lot of debate on what I was going to do,”
Melindy said.
“I had a bunch of emails in my phone written up. I was debating going back and playing CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport, now U4-Sports) hockey. I knew I would have to red-shirt a year but I could also get some education in and it would be paid for. That sounded like a no-brainer. I had all the coaches’ contacts. I was just waiting to make up my mind and send it to all the schools and see what kind of interest was there.”
The more Melindy thought about it, the harder it became to envision himself sitting in a classroom every day for the next four years. He continued to play professional hockey as he figured out what might be the best fit for him in the future.
Then, while attending the annual players’ union meetings as a member of the Wichita Thunder during the 2016-17 season, Melindy took in a presentation that would offer him the exact opportunity he was l looking for.
“At union meetings every year, they talk about the career enhancement program and the ability to do classes, university or whatever, and they give you a portion of it if you pass your class,” Melindy explained.
“In the meetings, they showed that firefighting was an option for after your playing career. This had been my fourth time going through these meetings and it never even clicked in me because I still had the hope of going to the NHL and doing that. As I got a little older, reality set in and you consider life after hockey. At that moment it clicked. This seems like something that would really suit me.”
Melindy dove head first into the firefighting training course, which begins with some good old-fashioned book-learning. The material itself was easy enough for Melindy to grapple. Finding the time to commit to his studies in the midst of a hockey season was a different story.
“It’s an online portion throughout the season where you’re doing courses and modules on your own pace,” he said.
“It was tough but not tough. We have so much downtime. You would go to the rink and when you come home, instead of playing video games, you dove into the books. It was a lot of time management, just really dedicating time every day to sit down. At the apartments, sometimes it would be tougher with the other guys around. It became easier to get distracted. Sometimes I’d just go to a coffee shop and sit down with my computer and start in on the books.”
Melindy enjoyed learning the material fine enough but his interest really piqued when the coursework moved into hands-on training. For five weeks in the summertime, the prospective firefighters would meet in Toronto for intensive training and team building.
“It was honestly amazing,”
Melindy remembers.
“I think there was 20 hockey players from the AHL and the ECHL and there was a couple of former players who came back and did the course as well. We had exceptional training. It was not in a classroom, we were out putting our gear on and actually doing it. It was like four or five weeks of pretty intense training but it was a blast.”
Melindy was still in the midst of his studies and training when he first signed on with the Growlers in 2018. As a way to gain experience while still playing hockey, Melindy served his hometown as a member of the Goulds Volunteer Fire Department. For almost three full seasons, he was acting as a double agent, playing hockey by day and fighting fires by night.
“The first three years, a lot of people didn’t realize I was volunteering,” he said.
“We were on call from four in the afternoon until eight in the morning. There would be nights where I would be up at 4 a.m. and rush down to the station. I would hop
on the truck, go on a call, finish up, get home, get back in bed, get up, then come to the rink.”
In 2021, the St. John’s Regional Fire Department was hosting a round of hiring. With the Growlers sitting out the 2020-21 season due to the ongoing pandemic, Melindy was able to commit all of his time to acing the entry exam to give him the best possible chance achieve his goal of becoming a full-fledged firefighter.
“No joke, I studied every single day for eight months,” he said.
“In the exam portion, they only take all the top marks. I knew I had to score extremely well to get through to the next portion.”
With no shortage of free time to prepare, Melindy aced his exam then went through rounds of physicals and interviews. Nine months of follow-ups later, Melindy’s hard work and perseverance paid off as he was officially hired in June of 2021.
“It was really a grind,” he remembers.
“There were points where I was fed up with it. Eight months every single day got tough. Not just on the mental part of it, relationships with family and friends. You don’t get to do stuff. You have to sacrifice. There were times where I said I’m done and I would take a week off. But then I’d come back and be like ‘No, we’re going to do this.”
As a new firefighter, Melindy’s schedule would be a little erratic, only working part of the year while largely filling in for other veteran firefighters’ when they would take vacations or annual leave. It would be a logistical challenge to be able to continue to play professional hockey but Melindy and the Growlers’ coaching staff found a way to make it happen.
“I didn’t think it was going to work,” Melindy admits.
“I needed a month off at Christmas time to come back and do my shifts. I had talked to the coaches, and I said I don’t know if this will work. But they were willing to work with me. I was super fortunate and thankful that they trusted that it was worth bringing me in and letting me work my shifts over Christmas.”
Melindy balanced hockey and firefighting for almost three years and finished two full hockey seasons with the Growlers, leading them to the Eastern Conference Finals in both seasons.
As the 2022-23 season began to wind down, a shift in fire department scheduling meant he was to report to back to work in April, earlier than expected. The fire department had been very accommodating in helping Melindy fulfill his hockey duties and it was becoming time to turn focus toward his budding new job.
“With Toronto as our affiliate, we had a ton of defencemen coming down,” Melindy recalls of the final days of the 2022-23 season.
“Going back to work, I wouldn’t have been able to travel with the team. I don’t feel like it would have been fair to be in the middle of playoffs, especially with the format playing three games on the road to start the series, and
I have to try to jump in. I didn’t want to mess up the mojo or anything.”
So Melindy planned to have the final game of the season be his last. With friends and family in attendance, he brought the Mary Brown’s Centre crowd to its feet with one final classic James Melindy performance, complete with a hair-raising fight and one final goal.
“I was retired,”
he said.
“I was done. I played that last game, which was incredible. It couldn’t have worked out any better than what it did. At that point, that was it. I thought I was done.”
While Melindy has enjoyed every moment of his surprise return to the Growlers during the 2023-24 season, he believes this year might be his last. For real this time.
“I think I might burn my gear at the end of this year,”
James said with a grin.
“There’s no chance of getting me back. At some point in time, you’re done done. I thought I was at that point for a number of years. But I think this year, it will be different. Me and my wife are expecting our first child. It will be chaos before the end of the year. She will be due in April. I want to be home with my family and helping with the baby. I want to take advantage of being able to see my little girl grow. So I would say at the end of this year, we are as good as done. I won’t mark off that I won’t try to still be involved in some way. But playing, I would say this is the end. They squeezed the last bit of blood out of the turnip.”
This easy, healthy cod fish taco recipe is seasoned with a chili-lime cumin rub topped with slaw and creamy lime sauce – no breading, no frying!
FISH:
• 4 pieces 4 oz each skinless firm white fish such as cod, (or snapper fillet, mahi mahi), fresh is best, if frozen thawed
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoons lime chili seasoning, such as Tajin Classic
SAUCE
(make 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup fat free Greek Yogurt
• 3 tablespoons light mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1-2 tablespoons water, to thin
• 3/4 teaspoon chili-lime seasoning salt, such as Tajin Classic
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 cup white cabbage, sliced
• 1 cup red cabbage, sliced
• 1/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 corn tortillas, charred on the open flame 30 seconds on each side
• lime wedges, for serving
Season fish with salt, ground cumin and Tajin.
Combine the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Toss the slaw ingredients and keep cold.
Place on preheated skillet and spray with olive oil, cook 4 to 5 minutes on each side until fish is just opaque and charred. Break up in large chunks.
Char the tortillas over an open flame on the burner or in a skillet about 30 seconds on each side, stack on a plate covered with a towel to keep warm.
Assemble tacos. Place slaw on the bottom of each tortilla, top with fish and drizzle with sauce, serve with lime wedges.
Since professional hockey first graced the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1991, there have been just a rare few native sons who have had the opportunity to suit up for the province’s professional squad.
Their names are permanently etched in provincial hockey lore. No matter if it were for just one game or hundreds, all would likely consider the opportunity to play professional hockey for their home province’s team to be among their proudest achievements.
Jordan Escott. Harold Druken. Jason King. Tyler Boland. Darren Colborne. Adam Pardy. Todd Gillingham. Warren Norris. Andy Sullivan. Dan Cadigan. Mark Chaplin. Keith Delaney. Terry Ryan.
That’s just a few of the names of the local legends who have worn their home province’s sweater for either the St. John’s Maple Leafs, St. John’s IceCaps and Newfoundland Growlers in the province’s rich professional hockey history.
But one name in particular may stand above them all. One player has played more professional games in his home province than any other Newfoundlander or Labradorian before him. No other Newf has earned more hardware in his home province than Newfoundland Growlers forward and St. John’s native Zach O’Brien.
O’Brien had appeared in 206 regular season games and an additional 47 playoff contests for the Growlers since the club’s inaugural season. He was an integral part of the Growlers’ Kelly Cup triumph in 2019 on a roster that featured no less than six Newfoundlanders at various points throughout the season, including Adam Pardy, James Melindy and Marcus Power.
Between Kelly Cup MVP trophies and First Team All Star appearances, Sportsmanship awards and Team MVPs, he had accomplished almost everything humanly possible for his hometown side through his first four seasons with the club and decided to move on and pursue new challenges in Slovakia to begin the 2023-24 season.
But when things didn’t quite work out for the veteran in Slovakia, he didn’t scramble to find a new contract or hit the panic button like many in his situation would.
“I knew exactly where I was going,”
O’Brien said with a smirk.
“I just love playing here. I know how lucky I am to have this opportunity. Ever since 2018-19 when we won here, I’ve loved playing here. We are treated so well. I have my family here and my friends. There’s so many things that go into it. For the last five years, I have been happy to play here. There wasn’t anywhere else I wanted to play. That’s just where my head was at.”
At 31 years of age and in his 11th season of professional hockey, O’Brien recognizes how rare these opportunities are to play a sport at the professional level while getting to enjoy the comforts of living in your hometown and wasted no time booking his flight home.
“For my first six years of pro hockey, I wasn’t ever home,” O’Brien remembers.
“Summers, that’s it. Sometimes I wouldn’t even make it home for Christmas. When Toronto brought the team here, I had to do that. I don’t know if I expected to play in this many games but it’s been unbelievable. I’m very lucky to have that chance. Not a lot of people get the chance to play pro in their hometown.”
The first call O’Brien made when he knew he was coming home was to his parents, who he cites as being one of the many motivating factors to making his return home for the 2023-24 season, instead of finding another opportunity overseas.
“They
O’Brien said, beaming.
“My dad loves it. When I was away, he would go to senior games just to watch some hockey. He just loves it. My mom is just happy that she gets to see me. That was another reason for me to want to come back home too, because I knew it would make them really happy. When I decided I was coming home they were pumped. That was just another reason why this was automatic to me.”
O’Brien takes advantage of his rare work-life situation as often as his schedule allows. Between gruelling road trips and intense home 3-in-3’s, sharing a meal or a pint with his childhood friends is almost therapeutic in helping O’Brien through his season.
“They come down to all the games, crush some beers probably,” O’Brien said with a laugh.
“I see a few of them on the jumbotron pretty often. It’s great. It’s unreal. If I have a good game and I go off one night, my phone will be blowing up. “Unreal game man, come and meet us at Greensleeves after. It’s so nice to see those texts. I go to Sleeves and know almost every single person in there. It’s perfect.
Hockey season is really long. It’s a grind. Even getting the chance to see my buddies once a week or once every couple of weeks makes it a lot easier.”
Even though he only missed the first few games of the Growlers’ season, a lot had changed since he last left the Growlers locker room, including a brand new coaching staff led by Head Coach, Matt Cooke.
“Me and Cooke had some good conversations,” O’Brien said of his early chats with his new coach.
“We both knew it was going to work out. My relationship with him is great. We talk about everything. And I obviously knew Pardy. And Gene (Reilly) has been around for a while at every level. He has a lot of experience. And Cooke played almost 1100 games in the NHL and another few hundred for Pards. No shortage of experience. That’s great for the young guys.”
O’Brien was in a bit of a peculiar situation when he first returned to the Growlers locker room. Sure, he was the hometown’s prodigal son and the club’s all-time leading scorer, but he was surrounded by a lot of new faces and didn’t have a training camp or any game action under his belt with his new teammates.
“It was different not being here from the beginning,”
O’Brien admits.
“But I was just happy to be back here. That was the main thing. I didn’t want to come in and be disruptive. I just kind of did my thing and was pretty quiet to start off until I got to know the boys.”
While O’Brien is well aware that year’s Growlers squad may not have quite as strong a record as in previous seasons, he sees great potential in his new squadmates and has already witnessed great growth in the team since his arrival in November.
“It’s been a bit different than the last few years,” O’Brien said.
“Our record is just a few games over .500. but our guys are starting to figure out the league a little bit. There’s so much potential with our young guys and you can see a few of the younger guys really coming around these last few weeks. That’s fun to see.”
As the 2023-24 regular season draws to an end and the Kelly Cup Playoffs creep closer, O’Brien may have to settle for seeing his friends and family on the videoboard at the Mary Brown’s Centre for the time being. With less than 20 games remaining, O’Brien remains laser focused on the important final games ahead.
“It’s all about getting hot before playoffs,” O’Brien said matter-of-factly.
“We’re in a perfect spot here now. We have a good chance to get rolling and add a few more to the win column. If you play the right way, it brings team success and individual success. It’s all going to work out. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. It’s almost playoff time, which is the best.”
So what does a Newfoundland hockey legend coming off a successful homecoming season do for an encore? O’Brien confessed he’s not yet thinking about the future, and is content just soaking in every moment at home playing professional hockey surrounded by his closest friends and family.
“I’m 31 now. I think I still have a lot of years left,” O’Brien said.
“I’m not against going back overseas at some point, I just have to figure out the right spot, somewhere I’m going to be happy and I’ll go from there. This is where I’m happy right now and we’ll see what the future holds.”
The trip from Gander to St. John’s is a mere 325 kilometres down the Trans Canada Highway and should take little more than three hours to complete the journey.
For Growlers forward and Gander native Adam Dawe, the journey may have taken a little longer and involved a couple of pit stops along the way, but it was a journey well worth taking.
Dawe began his hockey journey playing minor hockey in his hometown and despite his diminutive 5’8” frame, he quickly found himself among the province’s top young hockey talents, which gave him many options as he headed toward high school.
“When I was in grade nine, I had a lot of ice time,”
Dawe said with a chuckle.
“I wasn’t much shorter than I am now. I was maybe 5’5” or 5’6”. I played underage in the midget league, I had exceptional status for that. I played AAA major midget. I played on the ‘A’ team. At that time, everybody still had to play house league too. And because I was still in grade nine, I was on the junior high team. I was on the AAA team. The midget guys were all in high school and I was in grade nine.”
During that busy grade nine year in 2013-14, Dawe had to make a decision about his hockey future. He
decided to follow in the footsteps of his favourite player and take his talents to Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan to play for the Notre Dame Hounds for his high school years.
“There were a few spots I was looking at,” Dawe said.
“I had a few buddies who went to Notre Dame and they were going back. It was just something I thought I could adapt to easily. Their history is also crazy. My favourite player Jordan Eberle went there. Morgan Reilly played there. And James Melindy played there too.
Moving across the country from Newfoundland to Saskatchewan as a high school freshman can certainly be a daunting challenge. Lucky for Dawe, he wasn’t alone on his journey.
“It was me and a two other guys from Newfoundland who went together. Ian Smallwood from St. John’s and Owen Petten from Bay Roberts. Both my age. I grew up playing with them with Xtreme Hockey and Team NL. I played on the AAA team in grades 10 and 11.”
Dawe found his groove quickly and played well in his first two years on the Hounds’ U18 AAA squad. He would lead his team in goals (30) and points (54) in his grade 11 year, prompting his coaches to push Dawe to see if he was ready for the next level.
“When I was in grade 11 they asked me if I wanted to play up on the Junior A team there. I was asking myself ‘Am I ready?’ I was probably ready. We had a good team in ‘AAA’ that year. I got called up for a couple of games with the junior team.”
In his final year at Notre Dame, Dawe made the jump full-time to the Junior A team and continued to take massive steps in his development. He finished second on the team in points with 64 in just 55 games and led the squad with 45 assists.
“That was probably one of my favourite years of hockey,” Dawe said.
“I played on a line with a good guy, he played four years in the WHL, Ben Duperreault is his name. He’s over playing in Europe now. We had a great connection and a really good year. I won Rookie of the Year for the league (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League) and won Rookie of the Year for the country (Canadian Junior Hockey League). The year after, that’s when Alex Newhook won that, but he was in the BCHL (British Columbia Hockey League).”
Following his high school graduation, Dawe played a season in the top junior league in the United States, the USHL (United States Hockey League) before going to college, and enjoyed a solid season in one of the best junior organizations in the country.
“When I was in my grade 12 year, I got a text after practice telling me my USHL rights have been traded to Sioux Falls, so I knew then and there that I was going Sioux Falls next season. I didn’t know much about it. But I loved it. It was amazing. It seats like 11,000. They have the best crowds. We got treated so well. The rink is like a mini NHL rink. It’s the junior life. That was my first and only junior experience I had. We had a good team that year, but lost in the first round. I had lots of fun there.”
Following his lone season in the USHL in 2017-18, Dawe was ready for the rigours of college hockey. While his strong play in the prior few seasons had given Dawe plenty of options to choose from, he elected to attend the University of Maine, thanks in part to it being the closest NCAA Division I school to Newfoundland.
“I was the youngest in my class going to Maine,”
Dawe said
“There were only four or five of us that were in my class. Normally a class is huge. It was just me and three other guys and another who came after Christmas. I didn’t really have a good year. I didn’t score until January. The coach was one of the best coaches I had, Red Gendron. He put me in every position to succeed. He had so much faith in me. I didn’t score until halfway through the year, and he still had me on the power play.”
Dawe finally broke through to record that elusive first NCAA goal against Northeastern on January 11, 2019. However, the celebrations of his milestone goal would be short-lived, as his season would take a turn for the worse less than 24 hours later.
“We were at home and I finally score on that Friday night,” Dawe recalls.
“The very next night on Saturday, I get hit. Concussion. Done for the season. It was tough. In the moment, I thought ‘Is this it for me?’ I wasn’t really
recovering properly. I had constant headaches. I had to withdraw from my more advanced classes. I couldn’t handle such a big course load.”
It was a long and arduous recovery for Dawe. He began seeing a specialist in Portland, a two-hour drive from the University of Maine’s campus in Orono. He spent his summer strengthening his neck muscles and managed to make a full recovery in time for the start of the 2019-20 hockey season.
Things were looking up for Dawe and his University of Maine teammates, thanks in large part to their future NHL superstar goaltender.
“We had a really good team,” Dawe remembers.
“Jeremy Swayman was our goalie. If we scored two or three goals in a game, we knew we were good. We didn’t need to score any more, we had Sway in net. He was a Hobey Baker finalist and he won the Mike Richter Award that year.”
Things were finally going well for Dawe. He found his scoring touch and ranked fourth on his team with nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points.
His squad surprised the hockey world by finishing fourth in the Hockey East conference. The University of Maine was set to host its first playoff game in Orono in four years before a worldwide pandemic promptly ended everyone’s season.
“We were starting to get good right at the right time, then Covid hit,”
Dawe said.
“We were ranked 16th in the country at the time. We had a bid to get into the NCAA tournament too. That sucked. We lost one game at home all year or something and were hosting playoffs against Connecticut. Then Covid happened.”
Dawe and his UMaine teammates all left school and went home to mourn the loss of their season and waited for their next opportunity to return to the ice. Teams got back to action to begin the 2020-21 season, but things would be very different.
“We had to wear masks while playing hockey, those masks that attached to the cages,” Dawe remembers.
“It wasn’t that bad. Some guys didn’t really enjoy it. It helped with the cardio, I’ll tell you that. The year was kind of a write off. We only played 16 games. Our coach, Red Gendron passed away at the end of the season. We didn’t really have the best team. I didn’t have a great year.”
Dawe would finish the 2020-21 season with a solid 14 points in 16 games. He played one more season with the Black Bears and graduated from the University of Maine in the spring of 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Child Development and Family Relations with a minor in Education.
But he still had to decide what was next in his hockey career. The Covid-impacted season in 2020 had granted him the option to return to the NCAA for a rare fifth season if he was interested. Dawe considered his options.
“I was like ‘What do I do? Do I go and play another year in school? Do I stay at Maine? Do I try and go play pro overseas?’”
He once again consulted with his family and decided it was a good idea to jump on the offer of one more season in the NCAA.
“I decided that, if they are going to give me another year, I might as well take it,” Dawe admits. “However, it didn’t work out to stay at Maine. I would have loved to stay but it didn’t work out.”
Dawe found himself in the NCAA Transfer Portal, essentially rendering him a college free agent. He spoke to a few teams and chose to suit up for one more NCAA season with the University of Maine’s Hockey East rivals, the University of Connecticut.
“I was comfortable with Hockey East and knew what it was all about,” Dawe said of his decision to choose UConn.
“They reached out and offered me a spot. They had a really good team that year and had lost in the Hockey East finals that year. So I went to Connecticut to be a fifth year guy with experience.”
The surroundings were admittedly a little different than what Dawe was used to. He had a different coach. New teammates. He was taking grad school
classes. While he enjoyed the opportunities from his new club, including a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play at the world–famous Madison Square Garden in New York City, he once again found himself pondering his hockey future.
“I felt like it just wasn’t playing out for me,”
Dawe admitted.
“I didn’t fit right there. I talked to my family and said ‘I don’t know’. Five years (in college) is a long time. I know it was an extra college year they gave me. I went back but my heart wasn’t there. I called my dad and told him I’m going to come home. It was so hard. I had never made a decision like that before. I had never quit anything before in my life when it comes to that stuff. My heart wasn’t there. So I came home in January of last year.”
As soon as Dawe made his decision and booked his flight home, he knew there was only one place he wanted to play next.
“My advisor asked me where I wanted to go,”
Dawe explained.
“I thought it was maybe a bit late in the year to go to Europe but I know the Growlers have a team in St. John’s and I know they are good. They have a lot of AHL guys. This might be the only spot I want to play.”
After five long years of college hockey and nine total years being away from home, Dawe was hoping to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted to come home to enjoy being in Newfoundland while also continuing his hockey career at the same time.
“Summer and Christmas are the only times I get to see my family and friends,” Dawe said.
“And you know Newfoundland. Everybody loves being in Newfoundland if you’re from Newfoundland.”
Dawe’s agent swiftly reached out to then Growlers Head Coach Eric Wellwood who signed Dawe to his first professional contract during the 2023 ECHL All Star break.
And wouldn’t you know it, Dawe’s first day on the job was January 18, his birthday. He needed to show up at the Mary Brown’s Centre to get his new sticks and equipment sorted and packed up, as the team was scheduled to fly out on a two-week road trip the next day.
“We celebrated my birthday at home in Gander,” Dawe said.
“I hadn’t been home on my birthday in nine years. Me and my Dad woke up at 6am to get to the Mary
Brown’s Centre by 10am before they brought the gear to the airport. We woke up at six and drove the three hours or so out here. I got all my gear fitted, cut my sticks and did my physical. They put me up at the JAG for the night and the bus picked me up in the morning. I didn’t sleep one bit that night.”
Dawe’s first pro weekend was a busy one. Used to playing only twice a week during his college days, Dawe and the Growlers would play three games in three days, including overnight travel from Worcester to Adirondack on Friday night.
Dawe survived his first ECHL three-in-three and was still searching for his first professional point when the Growlers bus rolled into Cincinnati for a date with the Cyclones on January 25. Despite not yet recording any points, Dawe was feeling good about his play through his first three games.
“I thought to myself, ‘Ok I have a couple of games under my belt now’. I know what it’s about. I’m playing well. Welly keeps putting me out there,” Dawe said.
“I wasn’t nervous but I was more in my head a little bit. You’re playing pro hockey now. You’re getting paid to play hockey. It’s what you always wanted to do. I remember telling James Melindy, he asked how I was feeling. I said, ‘Mel, I’m having fun. I haven’t had this much fun playing hockey in a long time’. It was great just getting more ice time, wearing the Growlers jersey and knowing I’m going to be home.”
It all came together in a big way for Dawe on that fateful night in Cincinnati. Just over 11 minutes into the first period, he took a pass from Derian Plouffe from the left wing corner and fired a shot on goal from close range. The goaltender Beck Warm made the initial save but Dawe was in the right place at the right time to get a piece of the rebound to record his first professional goal.
Or did he?
“I thought it was going to be called back because I kicked it,”
Dawe said with a smile.
“I got my own rebound in front of the net and kind of kicked it, just an immediate reaction. It turns out, the defenceman tried to clear it but it hit the goalie’s skate and went in. Not the prettiest first pro goal.”
And believe it or not, Dawe’s incredible night was just getting started.
Less than three minutes later, Plouffe once again found Dawe with a pass, this time streaking over centre for a breakaway. The Cincinnati defenceman
couldn’t overtake the speedy Dawe, so he instead pulled him down to the ice. Dawe’s momentum carried himself and the puck over the goal line for his second professional goal.
“The second one, I didn’t even know it went in until I got up.” Dawe remembers with a laugh.
But Dawe wasn’t content with just his two “ugly” goals. He wanted a pretty one and wouldn’t have to wait long to get one.
Late in the game, with the Growlers leading 4-0 with four minutes remaining in the third period, Dawe picked off a pass in the offensive zone and wasted no time sending a perfect wrist shot over the glove of the netminder and into the top corner.
In just his fourth professional game, Dawe had not only recorded his first pro goal. He finished the game with First Star honours and a four-point night, including his first professional hat trick, all while playing for his home province’s team.
“Their winger put it right on my tape and I just shot it,” Dawe said modestly.
“I thought ‘Wow, I haven’t scored a hat trick since I was 16 years old’. I remember Zach O’Brien wasn’t playing that night. He came down to the dressing room after to congratulate me. I remember him saying, ‘Now you’re a point-per-game guy’ because I had an assist too. Melindy gave me the Player of the Game award for the team that night. I remember Welly joking around with me, saying ‘It’s an easy league for you, is it?’”
Dawe’s big night would be the highlight of his first season in the professional ranks as he finished the campaign with seven goals and two assists for nine points in 21 games.
During the offseason, Dawe’s agent again began probing him about his options for the following season. Europe was once again floated as an option, but Dawe felt like there was some unfinished business to take care of at home with the Growlers.
“In the back of my mind, I really wanted to come back this year,” Dawe said.
“I kind of wanted at least one full year here under my belt before looking at other options. And for a lot of the summer, there wasn’t much news from the Growlers, so I was reaching out to other teams and teams were reaching out to me. I was spoiled last year when I came home. I liked being home.”
So Dawe played the waiting game and held out hope that the planets would once again align to allow him to continue his professional hockey career in his home province.
His patience would pay off during a routine shopping trip one late summer day.
“Me and my girlfriend were going to the mall,” he remembers.
“We pulled into the parking lot, I got out of the car and looked at my phone. I had a text from Marcus (Power, then the Growlers’ Hockey Operations Coordinator). He said ‘Hey man, we’re starting to get the ball rolling on players here now, wanted to know if you were still interested in coming back.’”
“Hell yeah.”
“I got the contract email from Kenny (O’Leary, Growlers Vice President of Hockey Operations) a couple of weeks later. It didn’t take me long to sign it.”
The 2023-24 ECHL season has brought with it a year full of new challenges for Dawe and his Growlers teammates, including a new coach and a rejuvenated and competitive North Division.
Dawe admits the squad has had its ups and downs this year but believes the cast of returning characters to the team will soon pay off as the Growlers inch closer and closer to the Kelly Cup Playoffs.
“There are some differences but lots of familiar faces back in there with Suthers back, and O’Brien. Melindy came back. Isaac is back. Kappy is back now. Todd. Dryden and Cavvy. Guys I was comfortable around. I think right now, we’re finding our game at the right time. I think everything that’s happened before this has happened for a reason. I like where we are.”
MARCH 1 • 2 • 3 FRI. 1 - SAT. 2 7PM - SUN. 3 4PM
MARCH 8 • 9 • 10 FRI. 8 - SAT. 9 7PM - SUN. 10 4PM
The Newfoundland Growlers are back on home ice for six pivotal games in their bid for a playoff spot as the
Kalamazoo Wings and Idaho Steelheads each visit the Mary Brown’s Centre for their first time.
Having played a pair of games against one another over the holidays last season down in Michigan, the Growlers and Wings will meet for the first time right here on the rock this month as they faceoff on Friday, March 1, Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3.
For Newfoundland, the focus is on creating more separation between themselves in third in the North Division and the four teams chasing them. In a perfect world, a hot streak helps gain ground on the second place Norfolk Admirals and snatch home ice for the opening round of the Kelly Cup playoffs in the process.
Kalamazoo has no shortage of motivation themselves ahead of this series, currently fifth in the Central Division out west – tied on points with the fourth place Fort Wayne Komets for the final playoff spot in the division. A 4-3 overtime win on December 30, 2022 followed by a 2-1 victory the next night on New Years Eve, Newfoundland have won both of their two previous meetings all-time with Kalamazoo.
In a crucial stage of the year for both sides, these three games between two teams fighting tooth and nail for a spot in the postseason should offer plenty of entertainment at the Mary Brown’s Centre.
Another team from out west venture to the east coast for their first ever visit this month as the Idaho Steelheads do battle with the Growlers on Friday, March 8, Saturday, March 9 and Sunday, March 10.
The Growlers were in Boise for three straight against the Steelheads earlier this season where they managed to take two out of a three against an Idaho team who sat atop the ECHL standings at that time.
With a combined 29 goals scored in that series back in early December, fans can expect offence to be on full display once again this time around.
Sitting second in the Mountain Division, trailing only the league leading Kansas City Mavericks, Idaho have sat near the top of the ECHL since the beginning of the 2022-23 season.
The last time a consensus powerhouse came through town, the Growlers sent the Greenville Swamp Rabbits packing with no points to show for it as they swept the three-game series. While it may be a tall task to ask for another sweep against a stacked Steelheads team, Newfoundland fans will be hoping the home form they showed in February spills over into March.
It’s been nearly three weeks since our last action at the MBC, but the Growlers are back with a bang as there’s plenty of promotions and theme nights to look forward to in March across the six games!
On Friday, March 1 it’s Vallen night to kickstart the Kalamazoo series with plenty of great prizes up for grabs. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.
Saturday with the Wings is also Kids Eat Smart night where a great charitable cause also comes with a chance at some incredible prizes including airfare, grocery gift cards and much more. Bring your loonies and toonies along as well to donate to Kids Eat Smart. Puck once again drops on Saturday, March 2 at 7:00pm.
And in the final home game against the Wings, it’s Epilepsy Awareness Night on Sunday, February 4
at 4:00pm as we help support a crucial community partner during the series finale.
The following week against Idaho gets underway on Friday, March 8 at 7:00pm with Mary Brown’s Night as fans will receive coupons upon exit for a free small taters while a chance at free Big Mary’s for a year will be awarded to one lucky fan.
Saturday, March 9 is India Beer night and we’re unveiling special themed jerseys to celebrate this exciting partnership. Add in $5 cans of India in partnership with MB Centre and it’s got all the makings of a super Saturday. Doors open at 6:00pm, puck drops at 7:00.
Lastly, the homestand ends with Nevaeh’s Angel Foundation on Sunday, March 10. Special lemonade slushies will be sold on the concourse for the occasion with all proceeds going to the charity. Help us keep Nevaeh’s legacy alive and get down to the last home game of the month. Puck drop is scheduled for 4:00pm.
For more information or to get your tickets, please visit nlgrowlers.com.
