JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Early in a season, putting together a winning streak can be tough. Teams are usually tinkering with lineups, combinations and systems that will work. Still, getting a “W” in two or more games in a row can lead to gaining confidence and bigger things.
Orlando goalie Brad Barone made 26 saves in the Solar Bears loss to Jacksonville Friday night (Photo courtesy of Trina Kirk/PHN)
Friday night, the Orlando Solar Bears took a two-game winning streak into the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena against a Jacksonville Icemen team that was in a bit of a losing skid, including a loss to the Solar Bears in Orlando on Tuesday. In the end, it was the leadership of a captain that decided the outcome.
Christopher Brown scored a pair of goals and goalie Charles Williams was nearly perfect between the pipes as host Jacksonville (3-4-1-1) downed the Solar Bears (4-3-1-0) 3-1 in front of an announced crowd of 6,836. Aaron Luchuk scored the lone goal for the visitors, extending his points streak to eight games and netminder Brad Barone made 26 saves but it was not near enough to come away victorious.
The opening period started in an ominous fashion for the Solar Bears. Just six seconds after the puck drop, forward Alexey Lipanov went down in a heap. He had to be helped down the tunnel to the locker room with an undisclosed injury and never returned to the ice.
The rest of the frame went in the fashion one might expect for two teams playing their third game in four days. The Icemen, who had played and lost in Greenville the night before, had a bit more energy and outshot the Solar Bears 10-5. Each team killed off a penalty and neither side scored before the buzzer ended the stanza.
The Icemen returned to the penalty kill less than two minutes into the second frame and successfully killed it off and got a bonus out of it – a shorthanded goal. The score came when in the final 30 seconds of the kill, Ara Nazarian sent Brown away on a breakout. Brown outraced Solar Bears defenseman Michael Brodzinski and beat Barone with a backhander for his third goal of the season (and second against Orlando this week) at the 3:01 mark.
The lead doubled six minutes later thanks to a weird bounce on a defensive play by Orlando. Controlling the puck in the Solar Bears end off of a faceoff, Sean Giles received a pass from James Sanchez. Giles fired a wrist shot from the point that seemed harmless. Orlando defenseman Montana Onyebuchi tried to swat the puck out of mid-air with his glove but instead it redirected past Barone for Giles’ first of the season to make it 2-0.
Meanwhile at the other end of the ice, Williams was having a rocking chair period. Although the puck was getting into his defensive end of the ice, his teammates were managing to keep it away from his crease. When the horn sounded to end the frame, the Solar Bears had not been credited with a shot on net – a first in ECHL franchise history.
Orlando did finally record a shot 2:20 into the final period by Tyler Bird and three more between the 4:17 and 5:33 marks but Williams was still holding strong. A penalty just past the midpoint of the frame gave the Solar Bears a power play and Luchuk struck. Brodzinski fed him the puck in the faceoff circle to Williams’ left and Luchuk did the rest. He had room to find a shooting lane and ripped a wrist shot to the far side of the cage. It was Luchuk’s seventh goal of the season and cut the deficit to 2-1.
That was as close as the visitors got to a comeback. Jacksonville limited Orlando to just three shots in the final eight minutes. Brown put the final nail in the coffin when he blocked a point shot by Luchuk and outraced Brodzinski to retrieve it and stuff it into the empty net for his second of the night and fourth of the year.
Williams finished the night with 14 saves on 15 shots faced to record the victory while Barone stopped 26 of 28 Icemen shots in suffering the loss.
The Solar Bears head up Interstate 95 to North Charleston, South Carolina for a two-game set with the Stingrays. Saturday’s game starts at 6:05 p.m.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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