ORLANDO, FLA – With its game four hero missing due to an injury, the Orlando Solar Bears still had a chance on Sunday to win its best-of-seven South division semifinal series. To do it, the Solar Bears would have to weather the storm that was a desperate Florida Everblades squad.
When the ice chips settled, desperation won out over a missing heart.
Brendan O’Donnell scored two goals as part of a four-goal third period outburst that allowed the Everblades to defeat the Solar Bears 5-1 in front of an announced crowd of 5,211 at the Amway Center. Florida’s victory drew the Eastern conference’s top seed within three games to two and a game six Tuesday night in Estero.
“For two, two and a half periods it was a very tight hockey game. I think our guys did a good job of sticking with it,” Florida head coach Brad Ralph said. “We got a couple of fortunate bounces. We ‘re just trying to claw our way back into the series and tonight was a good start.”
As Sunday dawned and the Solar Bears and their fans prepared for a possible series-clinching win, the tenor of the day turned when goalie Ryan Massa was placed on the reserve list due to an injury that came out of the line brawl in the final minute of Saturday’s 3-0 victory. Florida had to deal with the suspensions of forward Mitchell Heard (three games) and defenseman Jake Baker (one game) but the inability of Orlando’s number one netminder to answer the bell became the biggest story of the afternoon.
In Massa’s place, Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky turned to rookie backup goalie Mitch Gillam, who had started two games in the regular season and finished Saturday’s contest when Massa was given a game misconduct.
Placed in a tough situation, Gillam played confidently in the opening period as the Everblades sought to take advantage of the young goalie. With his teammates doing everything they could to disrupt Florida’s high-octane offense, Gillam made a solid glove save on Mike Ferrantino early and turned away O’Donnell from in close to highlight a perfect nine save frame.
At the other end of the ice, Everblades netminder Anthony Peters – who won Thursday’s game three – was perfect as well. He stopped ten Solar Bears shots in the stanza to keep the game scoreless after one.
The visitors finally broke through on the rookie to open the scoring early in the second period. During a foray into the Orlando end of the ice, Levko Koper put a shot on net that Gillam stopped but failed to control the rebound. Michael Kirkpatrick, who was unmarked by any Solar Bears defenders, was in the perfect position to gain control of the puck and scoop it over the netminder’s shoulder for his second goal of the series.
The rest of the frame belonged to the goalies as Peters and Gillam settled in for a classic netminders’ duel. Both offenses found their skating legs and began to trade chances but neither goalie yielded any more scores despite a period that saw a combined 28 shots (15 by Florida, 13 by Orlando) fired on net.
Still within a goal with twenty minutes to play, the Solar Bears had visions of a comeback that would exercise the memories of a 2015 post-season series loss to their in-state rivals but the Everblades had other ideas. Just over a minute into the final frame, Florida’s Kirkpatrick took the puck from Peters and made a mad dash up ice into the Orlando defensive zone. Once there, he saw an opportunity and slid a pass back to Mike Marcou at the point. Seeing a wide open shooting lane, Marcou blasted a sot that got through Gillam’s legs for the defenseman’s first goal of the playoffs.
Twenty-nine seconds later, the Everblades struck again and silenced the home crowd. Marcou started the sequence with a shot that missed the net and crashed against the end boards. The puck rebounded in the direction of John McCarron who grabbed it and found O’Donnell in front for an uncontested shot that Gillam had no chance to stop. A mere 1:30 had elapsed in the period and Florida’s lead was at a seemingly insurmountable 3-0.
Justin Buzzeo got the Solar Bears on the board 5:56 into the frame when he redirected a shot by Ty Stanton past Peters to trim the lead to 3-1 but the Everblades answered back with tallies by O’Donnell and Dalton Smith in a span of 22 seconds to blow the game wide open. In both instances, the goal scorer was allowed enough room to get a clean shot at the net.
Solar Bears captain Eric Baier took the blame for his teammates for leaving the rookie netminder to his own devices on most of the goals.
“He [Gillam] didn’t play badly tonight. We kind of left him out to dry,” Baier said. “That’s nothing on him at all. He played pretty solid for us.”
Berehowsky concurred with Baier about Gillam’s 37-save performance.
“I thought he did a great job. I thought he played well,” Berehowsky said. “He had to face a lot of shots but he stayed composed. It’s a tough situation to be put in but he handled it like a pro.”
The series now comes down to Orlando needing one win on the road with two opportunities to get it while Florida needs to take both games six and seven to advance. Buzzeo said that the knowledge that the Solar Bears won both games one and two in Estero could go a long way to bolstering the team’s confidence.
“Like Drake said, you’re not going to win sixteen games in a row. It’s just how it is,” Buzzeo said. “They’re a good hockey team. We’ve got to go down there and put our best foot forward and do whatever it takes to win.”
For Baier, the last member of the team to play in the 2015 playoff series against Florida (six game loss to the Everblades), this series is about more than just winning a post-season matchup. He said he expects everyone to be ready come Tuesday night.
“Through me and some of the older guys who have been around on other playoff teams that have gone through similar situations in their careers, I think the mentality is good right now,” Baier said. “I think guys see the fans that come out and support us and the whole aura throughout the city for us – the support that we have – and all that. I think that bleeds through right to the team and guys realize that it’s bigger than us. It’s not just another series. There is a lot of animosity between the two clubs and I’d love nothing more to come out on top.”
Notes: Both teams came up empty on the power play with Florida going 0-for-4 and Orlando 0-for-1… The Everblades outshot the Solar Bears 18-9 in the third period to give them a 42-33 advantage in the game… Four of the five games in the series have been won by the road team.
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