GREENVILLE, SC – With the Christmas break looming, the Orlando Solar Bears headed back into Greenville Saturday night, looking to right the ship on a road trip that had produced just one win in four outings against South division opponents. Instead of finding a way to pick up a win, the Solar Bears found yet another way to lose.
The Greenville Swamp Rabbits (12-12-3-0, 27 points) scored four unanswered goals in the third period – including three in 33 seconds – to turn a tight game at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena into a 6-1 rout of the Solar Bears (10-10-2-3, 25 points) in front of an announced crowd of 3,325. Six different Swamp Rabbits players scored and four had multiple points as Greenville beat Orlando for the second time in the teams’ last three meetings.
The game-clinching stretch came in the contest’s final two minutes when Bretton Cameron (empty net), Justin DaSilva (power play) and Zack LaRue all beat Solar Bears netminder Ryan Massa between the 18:29 and 19:02 marks of the final frame. The sequence helped drop Orlando’s record on the current trip to 1-3-1-0 with one more game in Greenville on Sunday afternoon.
Massa, who finished the game with 22 saves, was the much busier of the two netminders in the first period as the host Swamp Rabbits came out firing. An early power play allowed Greenville to pile up eight shots in the first eleven minutes of the contest to just three by Orlando.
Greenville finally broke the ice at the 11:53 mark while on a penalty kill as Cameron and DaSilva helped turn a Solar Bears turnover into a short-handed goal for Jack Combs who beat Massa between the legs. The tally was Combs’ 12th of the season.
Down the other end of the ice, Swamp Rabbits goalie P.J. Musico was having an easy go of things, stopping everything that came his way. The only Orlando attempt that got past him was a drive by Erik Bradford that clanged off the post and stayed out. Bradford’s bad luck quickly turned into good luck for Greenville as not too long after, Joey Holka scored his first goal of the season with a shot that grazed off the iron behind Massa and went in.
The Solar Bears came out of the first intermission determined to chip away at the Swamp Rabbits’ lead. They did just that 51 seconds into the middle frame when Bradford set up Christopher Clapperton for a shot from in front. The original attempt was blocked but Clapperton followed up and cashed in on the rebound for his third tally of the year.
The rest of the period belonged to the goalies as Musico (26 saves) and Massa went save for save. In one sequence, Massa denied Combs at one end and seconds later Musico did the same to Orlando’s Johnny McInnis. Despite having swung the momentum, the Solar Bears could not get a second score past Musico before the period ended and trailed 2-1 heading to the third.
The Swamp Rabbits extended their lead 6:11 into the final period when Jordan Knockstedt converted the rebound of a Darian Dziurzynski shot into his 5th goal of the season. With his defense tightening up in front, Musico had more than enough offensive help at that point to be on his way to a win.
With Massa pulled for an extra attacker, Cameron netted his eighth of the season into the empty net with 1:31 to go in the contest. In a fit of frustration, Orlando’s Brady Vail hit Cameron and the pair nearly came to blows. Vail took an extra penalty and the Swamp Rabbits made the Solar Bears pay when DaSilva beat Massa to the short side for a power play tally and his first goal of the season.It was the first man advantage score Orlando had allowed on the road trip.
LaRue completed the scoring 18 seconds later with his first of the year at the 19:02 mark.
The teams will finish up their pre-Christmas schedules with a rematch Sunday afternoon at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Game time is set for 3 pm.
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