NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Facing what at best was a difficult situation, the Orlando Solar Bears arrived at the North Charleston Coliseum Friday looking to breathe some life into its playoff hopes. When the final buzzer sounded, those hopes were a lot dimmer than they started at.
Goalie Mark Dekanich made 30 saves and Patrick Gaul broke a tie score with just over eight minutes left as the South Carolina Stingrays (41-18-6-3, 91 points) handed the Solar Bears (31-27-4-5, 71 points) a 2-1 loss in front of an announced crowd of 4,233. The loss was Orlando’s fourth in a row (one coming in overtime), making the franchise’s third straight trip to the Kelly Cup playoffs a long shot.
Rylan Schwartz scored the lone Solar Bears goal while netminder Rob Madore made 23 saves to give his team a chance to win.
With five games remaining, the Solar Bears fell into a tie with the Atlanta Gladiators for tenth place in the ECHL’s Eastern conference post-season chase. Orlando now trails the ninth place Kalamazoo Wings, winners of six straight games, by four points and eighth place Wheeling by five points.
Madore and Dekanich met for the third time in the season series between the South division rivals. In the two previous matchups – both played in Orlando – Dekanich came out the winner but this time Madore was determined to change his and his team’s luck.
The Solar Bears roared out of the locker room to start the game, forcing an early Stingrays penalty and building up a 7-1 shot advantage. Dekanich held his ground which allowed his teammates to get their skates underneath them and start to push back.
That push led to an Orlando penalty that gave the Stingrays power play, which was 5-for-21 in the prior games against the Solar Bears, a chance. South Carolina made the visitors pay when a behind-the-back pass by Kelly Zajac set up Derek DeBlois for a one-timer that rocketed past Madore for DeBlois’ seventh goal of the season.
It proved to be the only goal of the opening frame as the two netminders were solidly in control. Even a brief interruption for a lighting issue could not rattle the goalies who combined to stop sixteen of the seventeen total shots and kept the score at 1-0 in favor of the Stingrays.
The back and forth battle between Madore and Dekanich resumed in the second stanza. Arguably the best scoring opportunity either side had came with a little over seven minutes left in the period.
With Brenden Miller in the penalty box, the Solar Bears were in the process of killing South Carolina’s second man advantage of the game when Brady Vail broke out and went in alone on Dekanich. Vail, who
has made a living scoring short-handed goals in his almost two full seasons in Orlando, moved in and zipped a shot that missed the net. The rest of the period was uneventful and the frame ended with South Carolina clinging to its one goal lead.
Madore made a pair of huge saves early in the third, one at the expense of Jared Staal. He bought the Solar Bears some time and his effort was finally rewarded.
At the end of a power play, defenseman Rory Rawlyk made a pass to Schwartz who took off like a lightning bolt through the neutral zone. He used his speed to split two South Carolina defenders and buried a shot into the top corner on Dekanich’s stick side for his 21st of the season and more importantly a tie score.
Five minutes after Schwartz’ tally, the Stingrays found an answer. Taking a pass that allowed him to break away, Gaul went in alone on Madore. Gaul waited just long enough to get the Orlando goalie to commit before he rang a shot off the inside of the post and in, collecting his seventh score of the season and putting his team back in front.
As the Solar Bears pressed for the equalizer, the Stingrays got a couple of opportunities to try to create odd-man rushes. One such play ended up with Austin Fyten firing a shot that Madore fended off with his stick to maintain the one goal differential.
It took the Solar Bears until there was less than a minute left in regulation to get Madore off the ice for an extra attacker. The move failed to produce a tying goal as Dekanich had his net on lockdown.
Orlando finished the game with a 31-25 shot advantage but failed to convert on any of its five chances with the man advantage. South Carolina went one-for-two on the power play.
The two teams will meet for the final time this season Saturday night with puck drop set for 7:05 pm.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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