DULUTH, GA – It may only be eight games into the regular season but if the Orlando Solar Bears go on to have a playoff-type year, Saturday night’s game against the Atlanta Gladiators may be looked back on as a proverbial watershed moment in team history.
Led by a hat trick from Cason Hohmann, two goals from rookie Tony Cameranesi and four points from Eric Faille, the Solar Bears (4-3-1-0, 9 points) stunned the host Gladiators 8-5 in front of an announced crowd of 5,301 at the Infinite Energy Arena. The victory allowed Orlando to collect seven of a possible eight points on its four game road trip before the Solar Bears headed home to begin a long homestand starting Thursday.
The difference in the contest was a franchise record seven-goal third period as Orlando came from two down with five unanswered scores to win going away. In the final 9:43 of the game, Johnny McInnis, Brett Findlay, Cameranesi, Hohmann and Faille each lit the goal light to turn what could have been a third straight loss to Atlanta into a defining moment.
No one in attendance expected the game to be as high scoring as it turned out to be. Starting goalies Kasimir Kaskisuo for Orlando and Matt Ginn for Atlanta played the first period as if it was a playoff tilt. Neither netminder looked ready to allow nothing to beat them as they matched save for save throughout most of the frame.
The lone score of the opening stanza went to the host Gladiators. At the 8:43 mark of the period, Josh Atkinson sent the puck toward the Orlando net as teammate Trevor Mingoia and Solar Bears forward Joe Perry raced to the top of the crease. Perry lost an edge, falling and crashing into his goalie and allowing Mingoia a wide open net to tap the puck into for his fourth goal of the season.
Things began to get wild early in the second as the teams combined for three tallies within a span of two minutes and five seconds before the frame was five minutes old. Atlanta began the fun when Eric Neiley converted the rebound of a Brock Higgs shot for his sixth goal of the year at 2:39. Orlando finally got on the board a little over a minute later when Findlay set up Hohmann for his first of the game and the season to cut the margin in half.
Just under a minute after Hohmann’s tally, Justin Buzzeo fed the puck back to the point where Blake Kessel lined up a hard slap shot. With Buzzeo creating a screen in front of Kaskisuo, Kessel’s drive found the back of the net for the former Solar Bear’s first goal as a member of the Gladiators.
The score gave Atlanta what looked to be a secure 3-1 lead, especially the way Ginn was playing between the pipes. Through two periods, the Gladiators netminder had 25 saves, none better than the one he made to rob McInnis late in the middle frame.
McInnis had to have felt like he was jinxed when early in the third he beat Ginn with a shot but it hit the post and stayed out. Luckily for him, his teammates were able to find the range as Ben Danford found Cameranesi in the slot and the rookie zipped a shot past the blocker glove of Ginn at the 4:36 mark to trim the margin to 3-2. A little over a minute later, the Gladiators regained their two-goal lead when Thomas Frazee grabbed the rebound of a shot by Jake Bolton and netted his team-leading seventh of the season.
The Solar Bears got a much needed power play seven minutes into the period and came up with a clutch play to again crawl within one. Defenseman Brenden Miller made the key play, keeping a clearing attempt in the offensive zone. He then sent the puck in the direction on the Atlanta net where Hohmann got to it first and jammed it home for his second of the night.
When Neiley finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with his second of the game and seventh of the season, the Gladiators were back up by two. Solar Bears head coach Anthony Noreen decided a change in momentum was needed so he pulled Kaskisuo in favor of Ryan Massa.
Whether it was putting Massa in or a collective realization that the team needed to support its netminders, the Solar Bears demeanor changed. Starting with killing off 49 seconds of a two-man power play advantage for Atlanta, Orlando began to build momentum when Findlay came out of the penalty box, took a stretch pass from Faille and scored a short-handed breakaway goal to bring the Solar Bears within 5-4 with 9:43 left in regulation. It was Orlando’s first short-handed tally of the year.
Moments later, Massa made a big glove save before the Solar Bears went on the power play again when former Solar Bear Shane Bakker was called for interference. Late in the man advantage, Miller and Faille combined to set up McInnis who batted the puck past Ginn for his first of the season and a tie game at 5-5.
Once again Massa found himself in a tight spot moments later when Derek Nesbitt found the puck on his stick in tight. He thought he had the go-ahead score but Massa took it away to keep the teams even.
With ninety seconds left in regulation, the Solar Bears took their first lead of the game. It came when Faille set up Patrick Watling (two assists) for a backhander that got to the net where Cameranesi redirected it into the back of the net for his second of the night.
Atlanta took a timeout and pulled Ginn in favor of an extra attacker but the move backfired when Hohmann got his hands on the loose puck and scored into the empty net at the 19:00 mark to complete his hat trick. Less than thirty seconds later, Miller set up Faille for a breakaway goal to complete the stunning comeback.
Massa picked up the win in relief, stopping all seven shots he faced while Ginn suffered the loss, giving up seven goals on 43 shots faced.
Notes: The Solar Bears penalty killers again posted a goose egg, killing all three Atlanta power plays. Orlando killed off all 22 opposition power plays it faced during the road trip…Nine different Solar Bears netted at least one point while ten Gladiators made the score sheet by picking up a point or better…Rookie defenseman Willie Corrin picked up his first point with the Solar Bears, earning an assist on Hohmann’s first goal…Findlay’s two points were his 150th and 151st career points as aprofessional…Orlando will return to the Amway Center Thursday to face the South Carolina Stingrays to begin a ten-game homestand that will feature visits by the Missouri Mavericks and Brampton Beast along with divisional matchups with the Stingrays (three), Greenville and Florida.
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