ORLANDO, FLA – At the beginning of the ECHL’s South Division Finals, both the Orlando Solar Bears and Florida Everblades identified special teams play as a key component to success. Whichever team could connect on the power play and kill the most penalties would have a leg up on the opposition.
Thursday night at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida had a leg up in both categories and left the host Solar Bears standing on the edge of a cliff looking into a potentially all too long summer.
Orlando’s Mitch Hults (25, black) wins a faceoff against Florida’s Kyle Platzer during Thursday’s first period (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing and Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Led by rookie Blake Winiecki’s goal and an assist and the letter perfect goaltending of Callum Booth who notched his first career post-season shutout, the visiting Everblades blanked Orlando 4-0 in front of an announced crowd of 5,854. The victory gave Florida a three games to one lead in the best-of-seven series with the chance to close the series out Friday night in the City Beautiful with puck drop set for 7 p.m.
For the host Solar Bears, it was yet another frustrating night. They failed six more times with the man advantage, bringing their series totals to 0-for-15, while the penalty killing units gave up two tallies. Add that to a sputtering offense in even strength situations and an apparent lack of energy and Orlando now finds itself in a win-or-go-home fight for its playoff lives.
“I didn’t think we played with much urgency tonight. We didn’t pay the price to win a game,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky dejectedly told the media in a post-game press conference. “We weren’t even close.”
Coming into Game 4 off of Tuesday’s overtime loss after failing to hold a two goal third period lead, the expectation was that the Solar Bears would come out in a similar fashion to the opening frame in Game 3 when they scored twice on twenty shots. What Berehowsky and Orlando fans saw was more like the final forty minutes from two nights prior when the Solar Bears seemed at times listless and unconcerned with being down in the series.
One of the few bright spots in the first stanza – and throughout the contest – was Orlando goalie Connor Ingram. Although he only faced eight Everblades shots in the opening period, he seemed locked in early when he shot out his right arm to parry a rising shot by Nathan Perkovich to keep the game scoreless.
Florida’s power play got its second chance of the first late in the frame and connected for what would be the only goal they would need. With Mitch Hults in the penalty box for hooking Joe Cox, the Everblades gained control in the Orlando defensive zone and worked the puck back to Michael Downing at the point. Downing, who was the player that Orlando’s Jonne Tammela collided with and drew a major penalty on which Florida won Tuesday’s game, sent the disc across the blueline to Matt Finn. Finn moved in a stride or two before firing a shot that Winiecki redirected past Ingram for his eighth goal of the post-season.
The agonizing part of the Winiecki tally was that Orlando was within three seconds of killing off the advantage.
“They just seemed to beat us on the specialty teams. They scored on that power play with three seconds [remaining],” Orlando captain Mike Monfredo said. “We were just never able to mentally come back from that.”
Solar Bears defenseman Kevin Lohan (22, black) battles with Everblades forward Tommy Thompson in front of Connor Ingram during Thursday’s game (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing and Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Sensing an opportunity to demoralize the Solar Bears, Florida began forcing the issue in the second stanza. The Everblades hemmed Orlando in its own end on a couple of occasions only to see Ingram bail his teammates out.
When the Solar Bears finally started to take control of the flow of play, the Everblades found a way to make them pay. Following an extended foray into the Florida end, the visitors were able to get the puck cleared out where Justin Auger got it under his control following an Orlando turnover. Auger sped up ice and got in tight enough to lift a backhander into the cage for his third period tally and a 2-0 lead.
Ingram, who finished the game with 19 saves, continued to give his team a chance by stopping shot after shot, totaling 11 in the middle stanza. He did not get much help from his teammates as the Solar Bears power play missed out on two more man advantage opportunities with just four shots generated on Booth.
“Our penalty kill was a big momentum boost for us,” Florida Head Coach Brad Ralph said about his man down units.
Still within reach, Orlando began the final frame on a power play. That was negated by a slashing call on Monfredo and when Florida got its player back, the visitors put a third nail in the Solar Bears’ coffin. Shortly after going on a truncated man advantage, the Everblades ended up with a three-on-two counterattack, Winiecki laid a drop pass back to Logan Roe who blew a slap shot past Ingram for his second goal of the 2019 playoffs and a commanding 3-0 Everblades lead 2:14 into the final twenty minutes.
A center ice turnover following Orlando’s final power play of the game led to the visitors’ final tally of the night. Seizing the puck in the neutral zone, Perkovich sent Ben Masella in alone. Masella made a couple of moves before going top corner with a backhander for the defenseman’s fourth playoff goal, sending many of the fans to the aisles with still over half the third period remaining.
Florida’s Riley Weselowski (27, white) defends against Orlando’s Alex Schoenborn during Thursday’s second period (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing and Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Orlando was able to generate much more offense in the period, putting 15 shots on net but Booth was equal to the task. The Solar Bears frustrations began to boil over late as several scrums forced the referees to send players to the showers early. In the last 1:10 of regulation, Orlando’s Monfredo, Alex Schoenborn and Colby McAuley along with Florida’s Downing were hit with ten minute misconducts as part of 46 minutes in combined penalties. The last one, which belonged to McAuley, caused the officials to run off the final 1.3 seconds remaining on the clock to end the game.
Asked about whether his team had taken any momentum from Tuesday’s win into Thursday’s battle, Ralph said that he felt that the Everblades did so but he added that it was the way they did it that was more satisfying.
“From our perspective, I think we were able to build off of it,” he said. “Anytime you win in overtime and with a comeback win the way we did [it], it’s a confidence boost for your team. Again, I think it was a sound hockey game from us. We managed the game very well.”
Orlando’s Hults, asked about whether or not there was a hangover from Tuesday’s loss, put the blame on one factor: lack of want.
“If you’re not ready to come here and want this win, then the other team is going to come here and steal it from you. That’s kind of how it felt tonight,” Hults said. “We had half the guys going [and] half the guys kind of sleeping and that’s what happens. You lose 4-0.”
Asked about the ultimate adversity of being on the ropes, Berehowsky stayed positive with the knowledge that there have been other teams who have crawled out of a 1-3 hole.
“Teams have done it before. I’ve done it before in the NHL [as a player] so it’s not over. We’ll just keep playing hard,” Berehowsky said. “The guys have to figure out what makes them successful. We know. We’ve shown them video and they’ve seen it and hopefully they’ll come out and execute tomorrow.”
Monfredo, Orlando’s captain, added that eliminating negativity and maintaining a healthy amount of positivity will be needed if the Solar Bears are to extend the series.
“When things aren’t going our way, you can see a little bit of negativity start to happen, which we try to cut off right away,” Monfredo said. “It [negativity] does happen. I get negative as well but we’ve got to cut that and just try to stay positive the best we can and just come out tomorrow and bring the whole kitchen with us.”
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