ORLANDO, FLA – As games go, Friday night’s ECHL battle between the Orlando Solar Bears and Jacksonville Icemen was simply game 45 for both sides if you look at the schedule. However, if you watched the game in person, it had all the trappings of a post-season tilt with tight defense, superb goaltending, plenty of storylines and suspense right to the end.
Or if you happen to follow the double-A hockey league, it was just another night in the South division.
Solar Bears forwards Dylan Fitze (13) and Olivier Archambault (74) celebrate Fitze’s first period goal Friday night (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
Fueled by 27 saves by goalie Martin Ouellette and a pair of late first period goals, the host Solar Bears (24-18-3-0) edged the visiting Icemen (24-21-1-2) 2-1 in front of an announced crowd of 7,184 at the Amway Center in Orlando. Dylan Fitze and Jonne Tammela both scored for the second straight game for the Solar Bears, who pulled into a tie with Jacksonville for third place in the division (Jacksonville maintained its hold on the spot by virtue of a tiebreaker of more regulation wins). The two teams will meet again Saturday night up in Jacksonville.
“I thought both teams played hard. We have a lot of respect for them. They’re a good team over there,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said following the contest. “We’re thankful to get the two points.”
Two of the subplots in the game were a return to the lineup and the arrival of a new hand. The returnee, Solar Bears forward Olivier Archambault, was seeing action for the first time since January 5th. The new face was that of veteran defenseman/forward Akim Aliu, who was playing in his first game in a year after being brought in earlier in the week to add some sage leadership to the squad.
From the outset, it was clear that the goaltenders were going to decide which side would get the two points. The Solar Bears were all over Jacksonville netminder Tanner Jaillet, who was forced into huge saves on Colby McAuley early and Tammela late in the opening frame. At the other end, Ouellette, who was making his fifth straight start, was less busy but had to be sharp.
Orlando’s quick strike offense, which has been spotty at times of late, struck with force late in the stanza. At the 17:47 mark, Solar Bears defenseman Alexander Kuqali pinched in and fed a pass to the slot area where teammate Tayler Thompson was fighting for position. Thompson appeared to get his stick on the puck and swatted it in the direction of the cage. Somehow it came out to the side where Fitze was waiting to bang it into the open net for his eighth goal of the season.
“I just chipped it in – we’ve stressed that all year. I got in on the forecheck but Arch [Archambault] beat me to it. He saw Kuch [Kuqali] heading back door and hit him with it [pass],” Fitze said about the play that led to his goal. “I just tried to lose my defender in front. Once I got my shoulder around him, I was kind of diving at it and took two swipes. It just sat there for me so it was nice to put that in.”
Orlando’s Jonne Tammela (17, center) celebrates his 13th goal of the season during Friday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
One minute and eleven seconds later, Tammela took a pass and went screaming into the Jacksonville defensive zone on the wing to Jaillet’s right. The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect got to the top of the faceoff circle and unleashed a rocket that was past the Icemen netminder in the blink of an eye. For the Finnish forward, it was his 13th goal of the season and gave the Solar Bears a 2-0 lead that they took into the first intermission.
The middle frame was all goaltending, all the time. The teams combined for 21 shots on net with Orlando getting the lion’s share of 13 thanks in part to three power play opportunities. Despite the number of chances, the Solar Bears were thwarted at every turn by Jaillet, who was given the start after his teammate Mikhail Berdin was recalled by the AHL’s Manitoba Moose earlier in the day. While Jaillet was standing on his head, Ouellette was giving his teammates plenty of reason to be confident by making eight more saves to go with the six he had in the first.
“He [Ouellette] adds a lot to our team. He’s our backbone back there,” Fitze said about his teammate bewteen the pipes. “He [stopped] a two-on-none tonight. [On] Wednesday [he stopped] a couple of breakaways that we gave up. He’s been there for us. I think that’s huge that he’s come back and he’s ready to go and I think we’re feeding off of that.”
Jacksonville came out in the third with some fire in its eyes, putting pressure on Ouellette and the Solar Bears defense. Ouellette was able to keep the scoresheet clean until the exact mid point of the final period when a turnover cost him the shutout. Cody Fowlie got control of the puck and sent it to Garet Hunt who set up former Solar Bear Christophe Lalancette in the circle to the goalie’s left. Lalancette turned and fired a quick shot that went high over Ouellette’s catching glove shoulder for his third of the season to cut the lead in half.
The Icemen continued to push hard but Ouellette was even better, especially when he flashed his blocker glove out to turn away a shot by Cam Maclise that would have tied the score less than a minute later. The closest Jacksonville came to beating Ouellette the rest of the way was on a shot by Scott Dornbrock that rang the crossbar with less than four minutes remaining.
Icemen head coach Jason Christie pulled Jaillet (34 saves) with 1:57 to go in regulation but his team only got one shot on net in that remaining time. It came with 15 seconds left and Ouellette, as he had done all night, was there to make the stop to seal his 13th win of the season.
For Ouellette, who picked up his fourth win since returning from AHL Syracuse, his lone appearance for the Crunch – which came the day before he was reassigned back to Orlando – was a catalyst for the way he has played since coming back to the City Beautiful.
“Obviously it’s better that I played one game than [if] I played none,” Ouellette said about his 19-save, 2-1 win over Binghamton on January 21st. “I played well [and] felt really good and obviously I felt good coming back down here to Orlando.”
New Solar Bears defenseman Akim Aliu (9, white) made his debut in Friday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
As for Aliu, who actually was supposed to be a member of the Solar Bears via a trade from Bakersfield in March of 2015 before a call-up to the AHL re-routed him, Berehowsky used him in all facets of the game, including in the final minute of the game with Jacksonville playing with an extra attacker. He said that although he has a ways to go to get back into full shape, he was happy with how his first night went.
“I think I played better than I felt to be honest. I was okay in the first 30 seconds of my shift but then after that obviously the wind catches up to you,” the veteran of more than 500 games including seven with the NHL’s Calgary Flames said. “I’m happy with my game. I’ve got a long way to go to get number one obviously back into shape and go from there.”
Notes: Final shots were 36-28 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-6 on the power play while the Icemen were 0-for-2… With the win, Orlando moved to 6-2 against Jacksonville this season. The victory also kept the Solar Bears perfect at 8-0 against the Icemen at the Amway Center since Jacksonville joined the ECHL… February 8th marked the second anniversary of the official announcement that the Icemen, who had been playing in Evansville, were moving to Jacksonville… With an assist on Tammela’s goal, Orlando defenseman Mike Monfredo extended his consecutive games with a point streak to four (1 goal, 3 assists)… Both Fitze and Tammela pushed their consecutive games with a goal streak to two… Solar Bears forward Mitch Hults missed his sixth consecutive game while goalie Clint Windsor and forward Cory Kalk sat out, allowing Corbin Boes and Archambault to draw into the lineup… Orlando defenseman Myles McGurty was placed on injured reserve retroactive to February 3rd on Thursday, making room for Aliu… Solar Bears defenseman Cody Donaghey served the final game of his five game suspension Friday night.
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