NORFOLK, VA – With the ECHL regular season quickly coming to a close, the Norfolk Admirals find themselves in the position of spoiler when it comes to hopes for a playoff spot held by several teams. Judging by the results from this weekend, anyone who has to play the Admirals should be worried.
Saturday night at the Norfolk Scope, Alexis Loiseau and the host Admirals (29-32-4-1, 63 points) stalled the Orlando Solar Bears push for a playoff spot with a 3-1 win in front of an announced crowd of 4,009. Loiseau scored two goals while teammate Steven Whitney had two assists in support of goalie Nic Riopel who made 40 saves to earn the victory.
Orlando (31-25-4-5, 71 points) failed to gain any ground on the Elmira Jacksls, who currently hold the final post season spot in the Eastern conference, which lost to Brampton. The Jackals lead the Solar Bears by three points with Orlando having two games in hand.
Unlike Friday’s first period that saw four combined goals, Saturday’s opening frame was a scoreless one thanks to the goalies. Norfolk’s Riopel and Orlando’s Ryan Massa battled hard, matching save for save through the first twenty minutes. The teams combined for 22 shots on net but neither goalie allowed anything to get past them as the period ended just as it began with zeros on the scoreboard.
A late first period penalty to the Solar Bears Nicklas Lindberg gave the Admirals some hangover power play time to start the second. It was that extra time on the fresh sheet of ice that paid dividends for Norfolk as Whitney set up Loiseau for a hard wrister that beat Massa over the shoulder for a power play goal.
Once again playing from behind, the Solar Bears regrouped and began to pressure the Admirals defense, coming close when Brenden Miller rang the crossbar with a shot. A couple of minutes later, Erik Bradford put the puck on the stick of Johnny McInnis who beat Riopel for his 19th goal of the season at the 5:34 mark.
The rest of the stanza was part two of the battle of the netminders. Neither goalie was ready to give up the go-ahead tally and turned away every offensive opportunity they faced. Norfolk had the larger number of chances as the Admirals peppered Massa with a total of 18 shots in the period while Riopel saw ten Solar Bears shots.
Special teams played a huge role in the third period. An early Norfolk penalty gave Orlando a chance to take the lead and nearly did so when T.J. Foster got a shot past Riopel but it hit the post and bounced away.
The next man advantage went to the Admirals and the Solar Bears luck continued to fail them when a Norfolk turnover led to the puck finding Rylan Schwartz. Schwartz rifled a shot that eluded the goalie but once again found the iron unkind.
Shortly after the power play ended, Loiseau was fed the puck and his shot clanged off the crossbar. Massa was not able to find the rebound but Loiseau did, jamming the puck across the goal line for his second of the night and 19th if the season.
Trailing by one, the Solar Bears turned up the heat on Riopel but the young netminder was equal to the task. He seemed to get stronger with every shot he faced, which by the end of the period totaled 21.
One more late penalty allowed the visitors a final opportunity to tie the score but Riopel’s glove hand denied both Schwartz and Miller. With time running down on the penalty kill, Robbie Czarnik got loose for a partial break-in where his initial shot was stopped by Massa (35 saves). Czarnik followed his shot in and managed to knock it under the goalie and in for a short-handed score that was also his 24th of the year. Czarnik’s tally snuffed out Orlando’s hopes for a second straight comeback and allowed the Admirals to take the victory.
Orlando now has its work cut out for it, needing to essentially win out to possibly get into the post season party. That process beginsWednesday night at home when the Florida Everblades pay a visit to the Amway Center. It will be the first of five meetings between the two teams between now and the final night of the regular season on April 9th.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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