ORLANDO, FLA – When the Orlando Solar Bears struck for two goals in the first 2:09 of Monday night’s game against the South Carolina Stingrays, the home fans at the Amway Center thought that it could be a big scoring contest for their favorite team. Little did they know that for the remaining 57:51 of playing time, the Solar Bears were shut down by the visitors from North Charleston. 
Luckily for everyone rooting – and playing – for the home team, Orlando had its not-so-secret weapon going for it: goalie Brad Barone.
Thanks to Barone and his 33-save effort, the Solar Bears (17-12-1-0) were able to hang on for a nailbiting 2-1 win over South Carolina (10-18-3-0) in front of an announced crowd of 2,462. Dmitry Semykin and Tristin Langan scored the two goals for Orlando, which win its fourth straight contest – all of them coming by a slim one-goal margin.
The last time the two South division foes met, an overtime tally by Orlando’s Luke Boka gave the Solar Bears a 5-4 win on New Year’s Eve afternoon. Since then, the boys from O-Town had just played once – a tight 3-2 triumph at Greenville to start 2022. Meanwhile, South Carolina was still struggling to find a winning touch, having lost three of its last four game to begin January after losing nine straight to finish the month of December.
The week-long layoff did not seem to both the Solar Bears as they struck for two goals in their first four shots on net. Just 1:52 in, Luke Boka sent the puck back to the point in Orlando’s offensive zone to Ian Parker. Parker crossed a pass inside the blueline to Semykin at the other point position. Semykin saw enough of a shooting lane to fire off a wrist shot that surfed its way through a screen and past the catching glove of Stingrays netminder Ryan Bednard. The tally was the second goal of the season for Semykin, who was assigned to Orlando by the Tampa Bay Lightning at the start of the season.
Literally seconds later, the home team lit the goal light a second time. After getting an offensive zone faceoff which the Solar Bears won, the puck went back to defenseman Michael Brodzinski who slid it over to Luke McInnis. McInnis launched a low drive that Langan, who had gone to the net to screen Bednard, redirected into the back of the net for his third of the year.
The remainder was spent watching Barone put on yet another show between the pipes. Over the final 17:51 of the first period, the Stingrays outshot Orlando 16-3 but Barone handled every single one of them to keep the Solar Bears up 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
The teams reversed roles coming out for the second with the visitors testing Barone early thanks to a power play. South Carolina finally got one past the Orlando goalie at the 7:19 mark. The play was an odd-man break with Nate Pionk and Jade Miller flying into the Solar Bears defensive zone. Pionk crossed a feed to Miller who quickly returned the favor. Pionk wasted no time in blasting a one-timer past Barone for his second tally of the 2021-22 campaign, making it a 2-1 game with more thatn half the game still left to be played.
What no one in the building would have guessed was that Pionk’s score would be the end of the scoring for the night. Both Barone and Bednard, who recently returned from a callup to AHL Hershey, took over the contest. Both had moments of brilliance during the remainder of the middle frame and carried their personal duel into the third period.
The Solar Bears had two chances with the power play in the first half of the final frame but the Stingrays held the home team to a combined two shots on net in the four minutes of penalty killing time. Orlando also had to kill a penalty, allowing two shots on Barone who denied both.
The offensive frustrations for both sides combined for a sequence late in regulation that had both teams shaking their heads. First, at the tail end of the penalty kill, Orlando’s Hunter Fejes got loose for a break-in. He thought he had Bednard beat but the puck hit the underside of the crossbar and somehow stayed out. The Solar Bears thought it had gone in but after video review, the decision came back no goal. Moments later, South Carolina’s Carter Allen thought he had bagged the game-tying goal but the referee immediately ruled that a Stingrays player had interfered with Barone, negating the would-be score.
The Stingrays continued to fight, getting off two shots in the final ten seconds but Barone turned away both to pick up his 11th win of the season.
Orlando is off until Friday when its starts a three-game set with the Wheeling Nailers in the City Beautiful. Puck drop on Friday is set for 7 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 34-20 in favor of South Carolina… The Stingrays went 0-for-4 on the power play while the Solar Bears were 0-for-2… Orlando improved to 3-1-0-0 against South Carolina so far this season… Langan’s goal was the game-winning, giving him seven during his career with the Solar Bears… Orlando defenseman Nolan Valleau was signed to a PTO (professional try out) by AHL Stockton earlier in the day on Monday.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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