ORLANDO, FLA – After a while, losing to the same team, especially your arch-rival, can get very frustrating. So it was Friday night when the Orlando Solar Bears went in search of a victory over the hated Florida Everblades in the middle game of a three-contest set at the Amway Center.
And although there were reasons to be optimistic, once again Orlando was left with the bitter taste of defeat in its mouths.
For the second straight night, a three goal outburst in the second doomed the host Solar Bears (20-17-3-1) as the Everblades (31-10-10-2) rode the wave to a 3-2 win in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,250. Marcus Vela, Hugo Roy and Michael Huntebrinker did the work with a goal each while rookie netminder Jordan Papirny made his first professional start a winning one with 38 saves.
J.J.Piccinich and Tyler Bird (shorthanded) netted the two goals for the Solar Bears while Michael Lackey, just back from a callup to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, stopped 24 of 27 in his first game action since March 6th. The loss, the fourth straight for the Solar Bears, dropped their record against Florida to 6-11-2-1.
The Orlando team that Papirny saw on Friday was a lot more aggressive than the one he saw from the bench the night before. From the outset, the Solar Bears were intent on shell-shocking the rookie but Papirny stood his ground. He faced 17 shots and stopped them all and the one that did get past – a shot by Piccinich – rang the post and stayed out.
At the other end, Lackey, who saw no action with the Wolf Pack, was just as tough. He turned away nine Everblades shots, including denying a breakaway attempt by Alex Kile, to keep the game scoreless after one frame.
As good as they played in the opening stanza, the Solar Bears still ended up on the short end in the second. It started 2:33 into the period when Stefan Leblanc’s shot from the point was redirected past Lackey by Vela for his third of the season. Levko Koper earned the seconday assist with a pin-point pass from the far side half-boards to Leblanc at the center of the blueline.
Following a successful penalty kill by the home team, Solar Bears fans’ hearts sank when the Everblades extended their lead. The play began when Orlando blueliner Mark Auk took a spill, allowing Roy and Tommy Marchin to go on a two-on-one break. The Solar Bears were able to shut down a potential pass so Roy kept the puck and zipped a shot from just inside the far faceoff circle home for his sixth of the season.
Just past the midpoint of the game, Piccinich got Orlando on the scoreboard. He and Joseph Garreffa combined to keep the puck in the Florida defensive end. It wrapped around the boards behind the net where Chris LeBlanc dug it out. As he did, Piccinich went to the slot and had just enough room to collect a pass and fire a quick wrist shot past Papirny for his seventh of the season.
A little over two minutes later, a bad line change opened up the neutral zone for Florida’s Cole MacDonald to get the frozen rubber disc to Huntebrinker for a clean breakaway. His first shot was stopped by Lackey but Huntebrinker cleaned up the rebound for his league-leading 23rd goal of the season, half of which have come at the expense of the Solar Bears.
Down by two starting the third period, things could have gotten worse for Orlando when Tristin Langan took a penalty two minutes in. Instead the penalty kill turned into an opportunity when off the ensuing faceoff after the call, Bird came flying out of the defensive zone like a rocket with defenseman Nolan Valleau not too far behind. The odd-man rush concluded with Bird snapping a shot past Papirny’s glove hand for his ninth tally of the year to cut the margin to 3-2.
Even though there was just under 18 minutes remaining in regulation, the scoreboard would end up frozen for the rest of the night. The teams were focused on scoring but the two first year netminders, Lackey and Papirny, were even better. Lackey kept the Solar Bears in range by stopping six of six after Bird’s goal on the way to a perfect 10-for-10 final twenty. Papirny faced eleven Orlando shots after the lead was trimmed and looked every bit like a seasoned pro, turning all of them away to record his first pro victory.
For a rivalry as fierce as the Florida-Orlando is, the game was almost penalty-free. The Everblades had two power plays and failed to score while the Solar Bears did not get a chance with the man advantage.
The weekend set finishes Saturday night at the Amway Center at 7 p.m. The contest will be the Solar Bears’ Hockey Fights Cancer night with special events and a specialty jersey that will be auctioned off for charity.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.