WHEELING, WV – Putting all of a team’s scoring eggs in one line is never a good thing. That is why coaches strive to get an even distribution of points between lines as well as forwards and defensemen.
Saturday night at the WesBanco Arena, the Orlando Solar Bears got goals from six different players and at least one point from ten skaters to defeat the Wheeling Nailers 6-3. The Solar Bears (15-14-2-3, 35 points) third straight win allowed them to leapfrog the Nailers (15-15-2-2, 34 points) into tenth place in the ECHL Eastern conference standings.
Forward Eric Faille led the point parade with a goal and three assists for Orlando while Brady Vail and Denver Manderson picked up a goal and an assist each. Defensemen Max Nicastro and Zach Bell both chipped in with two assists apiece as four of the Solar Bears blue liners hit the scoresheet.
As they had the night before, the Nailers got on the board first. It came at the 5:41 mark of the opening period when Anton Zlobin sent the puck to the point to Danny Fick who fired a hard wrist shot that beat Orlando goalie Ryan Massa to the glove side. It was the first goal of the season for Fick.
The Solar Bears answered back seven minutes later. Bell worked the puck to Faille who in turn found Rylan Schwartz open in the left circle. Schwartz took the pass and snapped off a shot that zipped past the blocker glove of Nailers netminder Brian Foster into the net. Schwartz’ fifth goal in eight games with Orlando tied the score at one.
Late in the frame, a tripping penalty on Wheeling’s Matt Tabrum gave the visitors a man advantage. The Solar Bears power play made the Nailers pay when Faille set up Vail for a one-time blast from the right circle that lit the goal light. It was Vail’s twelfth of the year.
The lead stayed in Orlando’s possession through the end of the first and most of the second period thanks to Massa. Following up on his solid game between the pipes on Friday, Massa was again a rock in net for the Solar Bears. His best save of the middle frame came when he robbed Wheeling’s Jarrett Burton on a point-blank opportunity early in the period to keep the lead.
Following a sequence of overlapping penalties, the Nailers found themselves with a trio of man advantage situations – 30 seconds of four-on-three, 14 ticks worth of five-on-three and 1:16 of a standard five-on-four. Massa and the Solar Bears survived being down but were caught when Andrew Cerretani deflected a Brett Stern shot past Massa a few seconds after the power play ended. Cerretani’s second of the season at 17:34 sent the teams to the final period tied at two.
Not wanting to leave Wheeling without a second victory, Orlando retook the lead before the third frame was two minutes old. It came when Bell slipped a pass to defensive partner Mark Louis who blasted his second tally of the year into the back of the net.
A too many men on the ice penalty just past the midpoint of the stanza came back to burn Orlando when Matia Marcantuoni knocked the puck home from out of a scramble in front. The power play tally was the third of the year for Marcantuoni and made most of the 3,017 fans in sttendance (there were many Solar Bears fans on hand who did not care for the score) happy.
The key play of the game came a little over two minutes later. Goalie Foster (14 saves) was undecided on playing the puck outside of his crease. The momentary lapse led to the puck finding its way onto the stick of Orlando’s T.J. Foster who buried his twelfth goal into the wide open net to give the Solar Bears the lead for good.
In a last ditch effort to get back into the game, Wheeling pulled Foster not once but twice. Each time the move failed as Manderson and Faille both hit the empty net to create the final score. For Manderson it was his third since returning to the Bears while Faille’s was his team-leading fifteenth tally.
Massa finished the game with 28 saves as he extended his personal win streak to a professional high four games. More importantly it was the Solar Bears third consecutive victory to start their seven-game road trip and fifth in their last six contests overall.
Orlando is off until Tuesday when the team rolls into Kalamazoo, Michigan to take on the K-Wings.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.