ORLANDO, FLA – Without a doubt,the past week or so has been difficult for the Orlando. Injuries, callups and a serious bout with COVID left the Solar Bears fighting a short bench. They got through it with wins in Allen and Tulsa before a home loss to Atlanta sent Orlando into the Christmas break with hopes of rest and recovery dancing in its heads.
Sunday evening, the Solar Bears returned to their home ice at the Amway Center and found themselves where they left off – and against the Florida Everblades, that is never a good thing.
Led by a three-assist night from Blake Winiecki and the 150th goal of John McCarron’s career in a Florida jersey. the visiting Everblades (14-7-2-3) put a 5-0 beating on the backs of the short-handed Solar Bears (13-13-1-0) in front of an annouced crowd of 7,203. Goalie Tomas Vomacka stopped all 25 Orlando shots he faced for his first professional shutout in his first start since December 10th.
The victory was also a milestone for the Everblades franchise, marking the 1,000th win since the team opened up shop in southwest Florida in 1998. They are just the second member of the six-team 1,000 win club (South Carolina is the other) to win 1,000 games in thesame location and under the same name.
As for Orlando, its problems began on Wednesday just hours after battling the Gladiators when goalie Zach Emond and Rich Boyd were put on the Commissioner’s list. It forced Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky to make a trade to get netminder Kai Edmonds from Tulsa for future considerations. (Edmonds was the goalie of record for Tulsa when the Solar Bears beat the Oilers 5-2 on Sunday, December 18th).
On Friday, Kyle Topping was added to the Commissioner’s list. Then on Sunday, hours before hosting the Everblades, Berehowsky saw both Tristin Langan and Canon Pieper come off the Commissioner’s list. Unfortunately, defenseman Chad Duchesne was put on the list. Then forward Joe Garreffa was recalled by the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, putting the Solar Bears back to the bare minimum 13 skaters. Berehowsky also found himself a second goalie – Thomas Sigouin out of Concordia University in the Ontario University Athletic Association – and signed him to a standard players contract as the backup to Edmonds.
Edmonds got the start on Sunday and things did not go well from the start. Just 1:59 in, a defensive zone turnover put the puck on the stick of the Everblades’ Kody McDonald. He in turn made a pass to Nathan Perkovich who zipped a wrist shot home past Edmonds’ glove side for his fourth goal of the season. Then a little over six minutes later, a shot from Joe Pendenza was stopped by Edmond. The rebound went airborn and Jake McLaughlin batted it in for his second to make it 2-0 in favor of the visitors.
Late in the period, the Everblades went on a power play and extended their lead before the first intermission. The key play was a slick cross-crease pass by Levko Koper to Robert Carpenter on the back side of the play. Carpenter collected the feed and quickly snapped it intothe cage for his eighth tally of the year to make it 3-0 after twenty minutes.
After a scoreless second period which saw both goalies play solidly between the pipes, the Everblades put the game away with two more tallies. Kyle Neuber, who rarely scores but is a tough guy to play against, bagged just his third of the year 33 seconds in to push the Florida lead to 4-0. McLaughlin was the catalyst on the score, carrying the puck down the boards and then cutting for the net. He attempted to make a pass to Neuber who was driving the crease but it was blocked by the stick of Orlando defenseman Michael Brodzinski. McLaughlin was able to reach the deflection and successfully get it to Neuber on a second try. Neuber proceeded to stuff it between Edmonds’ legs to light the red light.
McCarron finished the scoring with his milestone goal at the 9:34 mark. He and Winiecki started a cycle play along the boards. McCarron drifted into the faceoff circle to Edminds left and waited for Winiecki to return the biscuit. Winiecki did and McCarron whipped a wrister to the short side between Edmonds body and the post for his 10th of the season and 150th as an Everblade.
Vomacka handled things from there, stopping all nine Orlando shots – including three in the final two minutes – to come away with the shutout.
Orlando’s Edmonds made 17 saves in the contest before being replaced in net by Sigouin following McCarron’s goal. Sigouin faced one shot on net in his pro debut and turned it aside.
The two teams will meet up again on Wednesday night down in Estero at the Hertz Arena at 7:30 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 25-23 in favor of Orlando… The Everblades went 1-for-2 on the power play while the Solar Bears finished 0-for-3 with the man advantage… Sunday’s trip to the City Beautiful was the Everblades first of the season… The victory improved Florida’s road record to 10-0-2-1 so far during the 2021-22 campaign… The Everblades overall record is now 1,000-495-54-113 as they play in their 24th season in the ECHL.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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