NORFOLK, VA – Following a confidence-building win on Sunday at home, the Orlando Solar Bears began a season-high nine-game road trip in Norfolk, Virginia against the struggling Norfolk Admirals. Having split a pair of meetings in the City Beautiful a little over a month ago, the matchup seemed like an opportunity for the visitors to capitalize on having won just three days ago while the home team was mired in a losing streak that was at three coming in.
What the Solar Bears did not count on was a goalie who stood tall between the pipes and a forward who had a big night.
Led by Ben Duffy’s three point game (2 goals, 1 assist) and 36 saves by Merrick Madsen, Norfolk (15-18-2-2) came away with an important 5-2 victory over Orlando (17-15-3-0) in front of an announced crowd of 2,471 at The Scope. Jonne Tammela and Mitch Hults each scored once for the Solar Bears.
After losing defensemen Oleg Sosunov, Michael Brodzinski and Cody Donaghey to reassignments to their respective AHL homes in Syracuse and San Jose, Orlando Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky found himself having to bring in Carter Struthers from SPHL Pensacola to fill out his blueline pairings. Norfolk head coach Robbie Ftorek was in a similar position as he called Pensacola to add defensemen Brandon Parrone and Brandon Rumble as well as grabbing Don Olivieri off waivers from Atlanta.
Berehowsky turned to Charlie Millen in net for the second straight contest and the young netminder did not disappoint in the opening period. He continued his outstanding play from Sunday by thwarting all seven Admirals shots. At the other end, Madsen survived an early onslaught from the Solar Bears and finished the first frame with eleven saves on eleven shots faced to send the teams to the intermission in a scoreless tie.
Early in the second period, the game was brought to a halt when Orlando’s Myles McGurty put a hit on Norfolk’s John Gustafsson that left the Admirals forward lying on the ice in obvious distress. Relpays of the hit showed that the collision along the boards in front of the penalty boxes was legal but unfortunate. Gustafsson was taken off the ice on a stretcher as a precaution and did not return.
A little over a minute after the resumption of the game, the Admirals opened the scoring. Duffy and Connor Hurley entered the Solar Bears defensive zone with Hurley controlling the puck. Hurley dropped a pass to Duffy who cut into the slot and beat Millen with a shot to the goalie’s right side for his seventh of the season.
The visitors continued to pump shots on Madsen and finally broke through at the 9:45 mark on a brilliant individual effort from Tammela. The Tampa prospect took a pass from Dylan Fitze and sped through the neutral zone. As he entered the Admirals defensive zone, Tammela slipped the puck around a defender and got loose for a shot to the top corner of the net past Madsen’s glove hand for his seventh tally as a Solar Bears.
Norfolk regained the lead three minutes later. The play started with a keep in at the blueline by Zane Schartz. The puck went down to Duffy behind the net where he sent it to the slot area where Connor Hurley was in space.Hurley took the feed and whipped a shot into the back of the net for his seventh goal of the season.
With the Admirals up 2-1 heading into the third, both sides knew the next goal would be important. Norfolk started with seven seconds of carry-over power play time and failed to score but just a few ticks later, an old friend bit the Solar Bears. Darik Angeli, who a couple of seasons ago wore an Orlando jersey, took a pass from Cody Smith and headed for the Solar Bears end of the ice. He got to the top of the faceoff circle to Millen’s right before surprisng the goalie with a wrist shot that went stick side and in for his fifth of the year.
Millen (18 saves) rebounded a short time later to deny Angeli and Chris Crane, another former Solar Bear, after a turnover in the Orlando end. He was not as lucky later in the final frame when at the 12:45 mark Duffy converted the rebound of a shot by Jalen Smereck for his second of the night and a 4-1 lead for the home team.
Hults was in the right place in front to take a pass from Mathieu Foget to pull the Solar Bears back within 4-2 at the 14:07 mark. Mike Monfredo started the sequence when he dropped down along the half boards and sent the puck behind the net to Foget. Foget turned the other side of the net and pushed the disc to the top of the crease where Hults popped it home for his fifth of the year.
That would be as close as Orlando would get as Madsen put up a wall in front of his net to turn back a hard push by the Solar Bears. With Millen on the bench for an extra attacker in the final minute, Olivieri finished off the win by hitting the empty net at the other end of the ice from behind his own goal line for his third of the season and first in a Norfolk jersey.
The two teams will meet again Friday night at the Scope at 7 p.m. before finishing their three-game set Saturday night also in Norfolk.
Notes: Final shots favored Orlando 41-23… Neither team was successful on the man advantage as the Solar Bears went 0-for-4 while the Admirals were 0-for-2… The contest was the third of six meetings between the two teams. With Wednesday’s win, Norfolk currently holds a 2-0-1-0 lead… Solar Bears forward Olivier Archambault missed his second consecutive game. Orlando’s other scratches were Mike Robinson and Alex Schoenborn who is currently on the IR list.
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