ORLANDO, FLA – Buoyed by a big win over the Florida Everblades on Saturday night, the Norfolk Admirals headed up to Central Florida to battle the Orlando Solar Bears in a Sunday matinee. Unfortunately, the magic that the Admirals had the evening before in Estero failed to follow them as the host Solar Bears (25-24-5-1) scored a 5-1 victory at the Amway Center.
Norfolk (13-34-6-0) found itself in a hole less than a minute into the contest when Orlando’s Tristin Langan took advantage of an odd man rush to snap a shot past Admirals goalie Sean Romero for his 14th goal of the season at the 49 second mark. The Solar Bears then doubled their lead just past the midpoint of the opening frame when Johno May got to a loose puck in the crease and poked it home for his 16th of the year.
Whatever hope Norfolk had to stage a comeback was lost in the second frame when the home team’s special teams connected three different times. The first came at the 1:31 mark of the period when defenseman Alexander Kuqali jumped up on a rush during a penalty kill and ripped a shot home for his second of the season and the Solar Bears’ 13th team short-handed tally.
Five and a half minutes later, Kuqali was back at it on an other man down situation. He and Langan broke in and the blueliner got off a shot that Romero stopped. Langan’s rebound try was also thwarted but when the puck bounded behind the net, Kuqali picked it up and tucked a wraparound into the cage for his second of the afternoon and third of the season.
Orlando’s power play joined in on the fun late in the frame when defenseman Eric Drapluk took a feed from Langan and drove a shot past Romeo for his first goal of the season to give the Solar Bears a 5-0 lead after two.
The Admirals were able to avoid a shutout with nine minutes left in the final frame. It came when Mitch Vandergunst took control of a loose puck behind the Orlando net and fed it to one-time Solar Bear J.C. Campagna in front. Campagna had plenty of time to fire the disc past netminder Clint Windsor for his 11th goal of the season to close the scoring.
Despite the loss, Romeo played well, stopping 37 of the 42 Orlando shots he faced. On the other side, Windsor made 36 saves on 37 Norfolk shots to pick up the victory. The victory allowed the Solar Bears to take a 4-3-0-0 lead in the season series with one more contest between the teams to be played in Norfolk on March 18th.
The Admirals will finish their week long trip through Florida with a pair of games in Jacksonville against the Icemen on February 26th and 28th.
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.