ORLANDO, FLA – The last time Orlando Solar Bears goalie Corbin Boes saw game action, it was in a replacement role on February 13th against the Florida Everblades. The last time Boes started was on January 20th at South Carolina. With netminding mate Martin Ouellette carrying the number one starter’s spot, Boes’ role – and that of Clint Windsor – was simply to be there in case Ouellette needed a night off or either an injury or callup meant that one of the other two would be called on.
Wednesday night at the Amway Center, Boes got that call and he made the most of his opportunity.
Boes stopped 26 shots for his first win since January 12th while Trevor Olson led the offense with a goal and two assists as the host Solar Bears (30-19-4-0) scored five unanswered goals to rout the South Division and Eastern Conference leading Florida Everblades (37-14-5-0) 6-2 in front of an announced crowd of 4,083. Dylan Fitze, Mathieu Foget, Cody Donaghey, Otto Somppi and Zach Frye each added a goal to keep Orlando in control of second place in the division over Jacksonville, which defeated Atlanta 2-0 on Wednesday.
Orlando rookie goalie Corbin Boes (left) makes one of his 26 saves as Florida’s John McCarron (green) and the Solar Bears Liam Bilton battle for position (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“I found out [about starting] this morning and I guess one thing I realized that I needed to work on as well is just mentally letting myself be more relaxed on a game day,” Boes, the rookie netminder from Winnipeg, said about getting the call. “Maybe a couple months ago if I found out the day of a game, I might have panicked a little bit. Actually you usually get told the night before and you try to get in a bit of a routine but just allowing yourself to have fun throughout the day I think that helps keep you relaxed, keeps your mind off of hockey until it’s go time.”
With Ouellette not available, the task of handling the Solar Bears’ in-state rival fell to Boes. He looked calm and cool from the outset, knocking away four Everblades shots early in the opening period, as did Florida goalie Jeremy Helvig, who was just as locked in as his counterpart between the pipes.
The visitors opened the scoring, turning a penalty killing opportunity into instant offense. It came off the stick of super sniper John McCarron who won a race to a loose puck in the neutral zone and broke in alone. McCarron stared down Boes before going to his backhand and lifting the puck over Boes at the 15:14 mark for his 26th tally of the season.
Orlando went right back on the power play with just under three minutes left in the first and got a bonus when McCarron was nabbed for slashing, giving the Solar Bears a two-man advantage. With all the extra space on the ice, it was easy pickings for Orlando defenseman Michael Broszinski to make a perfect three-line stretch pass to Olson who was floating behind the Everblades defense at the opposite blueline. Olson went in alone and converted his own rebound for goal number 13 of the season and a 1-1 tie after one.
“Actually we’ve been looking to get that stretch pass going just to keep teams honest and luckily we took advantage of them being two guys down,” Olson said. “Obviously [with] two guys less there’s a lot of room on the ice. Like you said it was a great pass by Brodsy [Brodzinski].We had tried to connect on it before a couple of games ago and it bounced around in the middle but obviously he got his head up and found me behind their defensemen with a great pass and I just put it away.”
Orlando’s Trevor Olason (white) tries to shake loose from Florida’s Derek Sheppard during Wednesday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The second period was pretty much a carbon copy of the first with the exception that the scoring came earlier.Again it was the Everblades who jumped in front when Michael Neville took a feed in the slot from Philippe Hudon and after kicking it to his stick blade, Neville got off a shot that Boes stopped. Neville followed the puck and grabbed the rebound and popped it home for his 9th and a 2-1 lead 6:17 into the middle frame.
The Solar Bears took 74 seconds to come back with a tying response. It came at the 8:31 mark when Olson made a perfect drop pass to Frye who stepped into a booming slap shot that zoomed over the stick side shoulder of Helvig for the San Jose prospect’s third of the season. After Frye’s tally, the goalies settled in and controlled the rest of the stanza,sending the teams to the final twenty minutes even at 2-2.
Whatever Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky discussed between the second and third periods, it was magical because Orlando came out and took complete control of the contest. The home team netted three goals in the first 6:48 of the frame starting at the 1:58 mark when Olson weaved his way into the Florida end before making a pinpoint pass to Fitze wheo was wide open at the base of the faceoff circle to Helvig’s right. All Fitze had to do was whack the puck into the open side of the net for his 9th of the year and the Solar Bears first lead of the night.
One minute and 31 seconds later, Otto Somppi continued his impressive play, going to the low slot as Alex Schoenborn drove behind the Florida net on a wraparound attempt. Although Helvig (35 saves) stopped Schoenborn, the rebound careened away to Somppi who fired top shelf for his 4th in six game with the Solar Bears to push the lead to 4-2.
Not wanting to be left out on the fun, Cody Donaghey, who was getting a chance to play forward like teammate Mike Monfredo, cleaned up the rebound of a Fitze deflection of a Brodzinski shot for his 12th of the season.
Orlando’s Dylan Fitze (white) etches out some room as Florida defenseman Josh Wesley (left) and goalie Jeremy Helvig try to defend him (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The Solar Bears best defense in the third was their offense. They poured 18 shots on Helvig and the Everblades net during the frame, many times pinning the visitiors in their defensive end for long stretches. By the time Florida Head Coach Brad Ralph pulled Helvig with 3:10 remaining in regulation, Orlando was well in control of things with Boes showing absolutely no nerves or fear of the potent offense – albeit missing a couple of pieces – in the green jerseys.
After taking several rink-long shots at the open net that failed, the Solar Bears finally put a cap on the scoring with 1:36 to go. Foget did the honors, getting loose in the neutral zone and clearing the center line before burying the puck dead center for his 15th of the year (14th with Orlando) for the final goal of the night.
After the game Berehowsky lauded the effort that Boes, who Berehowsky coached in juniors, put in both in practice and in Wednesday’s contest.
“It was huge. You know what, whether a guy’s in the lineup or not, playing or not playing, everybody is expected to prepare themselves the right way,” Berehowsky said. “Boesy has been practicing, he’s been taking his practices like games, he’s been battling hard and it showed tonight. He wasn’t rusty and he played a good game. We brought him in for a reason and he’s doing the job we asked him to do.”
Asked how he stayed as sharp he looked with so little game time in more than a month, Boes echoed Berehowsky’s comments about his work in practice being the key to success.
“I guess when Marty got sent back down and I wasn’t playing again, I just kind of realized that my game wasn’t consistent enough. I really had to hone in on my practice habits,” he said. “I think that my practices over the last three or four weeks have been the best they’ve been since I’ve been here. I just keep getting better and that’s kind of been my focus. They’ve kind of been my games. I haven’t had too many days off.I always go out for the option skates with the injured guys and other scratches and put the extra work in. It was nice to see that tonight at least that it helped contribute towards the win for the team.”
Orlando’s Liam Bilton (white) posts up on front of Florida goalie Jeremy Helvig as Matt Finn tries to move him out (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
With the two teams playing three times in four nights – the next one being on Friday in Estero where the Everblades rang up a convincing 5-2 win on February 13th – Olson said that although he expects Florida to come out angry, if the Solar Bears play their game they can handle it.
“Any game against these guys is going to be chippy.They don;t like coming up here and dealing with what they just had to deal with so we’re going to expect a jump [from them] right away,”Olson said. “We’ve just got to be ready to weather the storm and if we play the right way, we’ll give these guys a run down the road.”
Notes: Final shots were 41-28 Orlando… The Solar Bears went 1-for-6 on the power play while the Everblades were 0-for-2… Orlando now leads the season series 4-2-1-0… With the win, the Solar Bears finished February with a 7-0-1-0 record at home, matching the team’s best February mark that was set during the out of hibernation season of 2012-13 (7-4-0-0). Orlando’s 9-2-1-0 record for the entire month allowed it to earn 19 of a possible 24 points and a win percentage of .792… The Solar Bears extended their point streak at home to a season-high nine games (8-0-1-0)… Olson’s point streak was extended to six games (6 goals, 3 assists) with at least a goal in four consecutive outings… Somppi now has four goals and five assists in six games with the Solar Bears including at least one point in each game played… Schoenborn extended his point streak to three games (1 goal, 4 assists).He also led the team in scoring during the month with 5 goals and 8 assists for 13 points in 12 games… The two teams will play in Estero on Friday at 7:30 p.m. before returning to the City Beautiful for Military Appreciation Night on Saturday at the Amway Center starting at 7 p.m.
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