ORLANDO, FLA – When the Norfolk Admirals arrived in the City Beautiful to take on the Orlando Solar Bears, they came in with an intention to prove that their hot start to the 2018-19 ECHL regular season was no fluke. On the other side of the Amway Center rink, the Solar Bears were looking to find the magic elixer that would lead them in the right direction.
Orlando’s Michael Brodzinski (20, left) and Mitch Hults bracket Norfolk’s Roberts Locans during Sunday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Sunday afternoon, only one team would come away happy while the other would be looking for positives to help it push on.
Led by a goal and an assist from Ben Duffy and 47 saves by goalie Ty Reichenbach, the visiting Admirals (12-7-1-1) came away happy with a 4-3 victory over Orlando (10-8-2-0) in front of an announced crowd of 3,959. Mike Monfredo, Cody Donaghey and Brady Shaw each scored for the Solar Bears, who finished their five-game holiday homestand with a 2-3 record – both wins coming in overtime.
“I was happier with our effort tonight. I thought we came out and we had a strong start [but] we took our foot off the gas. I think our game was up and down the whole night,” Orlando Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said following the loss. “That’s something that we have to work on – our consistency. We turned it on in the second period. It’s tough when you get a whole bunch of shots and you come away short, down goals. We have to learn to battle through that.”
The roller coaster ride that began during Saturday’s wild 6-5 overtime victory certainly had Berehowsky searching for a way to smooth out the bumps. He had to be pleased when for the second straight day, the Solar Bears opened the scoring early in the first period. It came when defenseman Mike Monfredo jumped up into the play to take a pass from Matt Spencer. Monfredo’s first try on Reichenbach failed but he stayed with it, converting his own rebound into his second goal of the season.
“It was just a lucky goal. I got a decent shot off on net and just tried to create a rebound,” Monfredo said. “I was lucky enough that the rebound came to me and I was able to put it into the net.”
The Solar Bears penalty killing units, which were under fire in Saturday’s game, hit another bump when Norfolk’s Connor Hurley fed Luke Nogard for a point blank shot that beat Orlando goalie Hayden Stewart for his seventh tally of the season. The power play goal was Norfolk’s fourth in six attempts against the Solar Bears.
Three minutes later, Taylor Cammarata put the visitors in front when he converted the rebound of a shot by Duffy, finding a way to beat Orlando’s defenders to poke the loose puck home for his seventh.
Solar Bears defenseman Cody Donaghey blasts a shot that became his second goal of the season Sunday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The other part of Orlando’s special teams quandry – the power play – was in a drought but managed to get it together long enough to score. Getting a late opportunity with a man advantage, the Solar Bears worked the puck around until with 58.9 ticks left in the period, Donaghey got it from Hults and ripped a laser that beat Reichenbach cleanly for the defenseman’s second of the year and a tie game.
“We’ve been struggling a bit [on the power play] as of late so it was kind of [nice] to get out there and get some zone time,” Donaghey, one of the San Jose assigned players on the Orlando roster, said. “All the pieces were moving and working together. I saw a good opening there. Schoey [Alex Schoenborn] was in front of the net and gave me a good screen. I don’t think the goalie saw a whole lot so I was happy with it for sure.”
Whatever momentum the Solar Bears got from Donaghey’s score late in the first came crashing down midway through the second. At the 9:32 mark, Avery Peterson put the puck on the stick blade of Jalen Smereck at the point. Smereck lined up a drive that found room between Stewart and the near side post for Smereck’s first goal of the season. Less than a minute later, Duffy got open in the slot and perfectly placed a wrist shot over Stewart’s glove hand for his fourth and a stunningly quick two-goal lead for the Admirals.
“We scored first but we took our foot off the gas and didn’t play a full sixty minutes,” Donaghey said about that short stretch in the second as well as other parts of the game. “That’s something that we need to correct.”
Berehowsky pulled Stewart after the fourth goal, bringing in Corbin Boes to try to stop the bleeding and provide a needed kick in the pants to the rest of the team. Boes did his job by stopping everything sent his way, giving the Solar Bears the ease of mind to get the offense in gear.
“Boesy played well I thought. I thought we kind of left him [Stewart] out there a little bit,” Berehowsky said about the move to change goalies. “You want to make a change at a certain point and I did that. He made some big saves for us.”
Orlando’s Brady Shaw (purple) and Norfolk’s Ty Reichenbach look for the puck during Sunday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
They began to pound shots on Reichenbach, who stopped everything until Shaw banged home the rebound of a shot by Jonne Tammela for his twelfth to cut the margin to 4-3 when it stayed into the break.
Boes continued to work his magic in the third, making several huge saves that kept the game within reach. Despite a perfect 17-for-17 in saves from their netminder, the Solar Bears failed to put anything else past Reichenbach. The Admirals goalie followed his 23-save second period with a perfect twelve save third to salt away the victory and a three point point takeaway for Norfolk.
Monfredo, one of the leaders on the roster, said that the team’s inconsistent play hurt the Solar Bears all weekend.
“We had some spots where we showed how we can play the game and then we had some mental breakdowns where we just weren’t in tact with each other,” Monfredo said. “They were able to capitalize on our mistakes and put a few goals in on us.”
Donaghey agreed with Berehowsky’s assessment about consistencyand putting in a full game’s effort, putting it on the backs of himself and his teammates to do their jobs.
“I think we’ve got a great team in the locker room. I think we’ve got all the important pieces there,” he said. “The coaching staff can only say so much but we’re the ones who have to go out there and do it so that’s definately something we have to keep working on moving forward.”
The Bears are off until Friday when they travel to Duluth, Georgia to take on Atlanta before coming right back and hosting Greenville on Sunday.
Orlando’s Mike Monfredo (3,purple) scores his second goal of the season against Norfolk goalie Ty Reichenbach Sunday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
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