ORLANDO, FLA – In hockey, maintaining one’s cool is a major mental key to winning. Take ill-advised penalties or lose your focus and mistakes happen, leading to a loss. Saturday night in front of an announced sellout crowd at the Amway Center, the Orlando Solar Bears lost their cool and it cost them dearly.
Orlando’s Hunter Fejes fires a shot at the Atlanta net during Saturday’s first period (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
Sparked by a four goal second period, three coming on power plays, the visiting Atlanta Gladiators (1-0-0-0) spoiled the Solar Bears home and season opener with a 4-2 win. Newcomer Brady and returning sniper Hunter Fejes scored short-handed goals 23 seconds apart for Orlando (0-1-0-0) to tie the game in the middle frame before penalties doomed the home team’s efforts.
“I didn’t like the way we played. I thought we took too many penalties. We were undisciplined,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said following the contest played in front of an announced house of 9,049. “I didn’t think we played with enough pace as well. We had too many turnovers which led to goals against.”
With both teams hitting the ice for the first time, neither Berehowsky nor Atlanta’s Jeff Pyle, who was starting his second tenure behind the Gladiators bench, was sure what they would get. Each side had a few returning players but there were new faces – particularly in net as the Solar Bears new goalie Martin Ouellette faced off against Atlanta’s Miroslav Svoboda who was assigned to the team by the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals.
As the sides felt each other out, the first period was one dominated by the netminders. Ouellette, who last year led the Florida Everblades past Orlando in the South division final, seemed to be in mid-season form, using his right skate to deny the Gladiators Matt Lane followed by a stoning of Jack Stander. Ouellette’s best effort in the opening frame may have been his back-to-back stops on Branden Troock who followed his breakaway bid with a quick rebound effort.
While Ouellette was wowing his new fans, Svoboda, who was playing his first game in North America after being signed by the Nashville Predators in the off-season, was steady in his cage. He turned away all nine Solar Bears chances to match Ouellette’s twelve saves as the game went to the first intermission in a scoreless tie.
Neither offense was happy about the goose eggs on the scoreboard and were determined to turn things around in the second. Atlanta got on the board first 1:31 in when Tyler Moy made a cross-ice pass to Lane who got his revenge by burying a shot into the back of the net over Ouellette’s left shoulder for his first of the season.
Seven minutes later, Fejes was in the penalty box when the Gladiators doubled their lead. It came when Derek Nesbitt saw Moy open on the back side of the crease and hit him with a perfect pass. Moy quickly fired and beat Ouellette’s right leg for his first of the year and a 2-0 lead.
Shortly after the ensuing faceoff, Orlando’s Stefan Fournier was nabbed for an undisciplined roughing penalty, giving the visitors a chance to grab a stranglehold of the game, however it was the short-handed Solar Bears who took advantgage.
Solar Bears forward Brady Shaw gets ready to fire on Atlanta goalie Miroslav Svoboda. Shaw had one of Orlando’s two goals Saturday night (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears).
At the 9:20 mark, Solar Bear forward Chris LeBlanc sent a pass ahead to Shaw who took off for the Atlanta defensive zone. Once in the circle to Svoboda’s left, Shaw surprised the netminder with a shot that snuck through the pads and in for his first tally in an Orlando jersey.
“It was a good play by Chris LeBlanc to get it up to me. It was kind of a seeing eye shot that squeaked through the goalie,” Shaw said. “Those are always nice, especially the first game of the year to get the [first] goal out of the way.”
Twenty-three seconds later, the Solar Bears once again charged against the Galdiators defense. This time it was rookie Brent Pedersen getting loose for a breakaway that Svoboda stopped. He failed to tie up the rebound which Nolan Valleau dug out and put in front for Fejes to bang home to even things at two.
Fejes said that Shaw’s tally, which got the big crowd into the game, was a huge catalyst for his score.
“Anytime you play in front of your home fans, especially in a sold out barn like we had tonight, we knew we just needed to get that first one. Once we got that first one, I think Shawsy really got the team going and then the fans obviously got us even more pumped up and into it,” Fejes said. “I think they [Gladiators] were panicking a little bit [because] you never want to give up a short-handed goal.”
The Solar Bears nearly took the lead when during a man advantage, Colby McAuley had the puck and Svoboda on his belly but the Czech netminder made a spectacular glove save to keep the score tied.
Things started to get out of hand and nasty at the 14:45 mark when Orlando’s Alexandre Ranger nailed an Atlanta player into the boards from behind. Almost immediately, players from both teams squared off with Solar Bears Mike Monfredo and Vincent Dunn taking on the Gladiators Darby Llewellyn and Luke Sandler. Orlando came out of the fracas on the bad side as between Ranger’s five minute major and a extra minor to Dunn,the home team found itself down two men.
Orlando goalie Martin Ouellette makes one of his 33 saves as teammate Brent Pedersen (left) watches for a rebound (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
The visitors regained control of the game one minute into the two-man advantage when Olivier Galipeau blasted a shot that found the twine behind Ouellette’s blocker for his first goal as a professional. Then one second shy of a minute later as the major continued, Joel Messner converted a rebound to restore Atlanta’s two-goal lead.
“I think it was a lack of discipline. We have to rein that in,” Berehowsky said about the penalties that led to the power play scores by Atlanta. “We’ve got to realize that we can’t take nine (in reality it was ten) penalties a game. It’s not going to work.”
The third period was much calmer than the second with the Gladiators relying on Svoboda (30 saves)to handle things. It did not hurt that the Solar Bears found themselves killing off three more Atlanta power plays during the middle section of the frame. The visitors from Georgia held off a late flurry from Central Florida’s squad to give Pyle his 477th career ECHL win.
Fejes, who came to Orlando in a trade last January and became a spark plug for the team, said that there was plenty for the team to look at and fix.
“There’s a lot that we can build off of, that we can critique. We’re going to have highs and lows during the season,” he said. “Obviously we know what we have to work on going into Monday (against South Carolina). Our motto is not to lose back-to-back games so Monday is huge for us.”
Notes: Atlanta outshot Orlando 37-32 in the game… The Gladiators went 3-for-10 on the power play while the Solar Bears were 0-for-3… Orlando hosts South Carolina on Monday and Tuesday nights at the Amway Center. Both games start at 7 p.m.
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