ORLANDO, FLA – Making adjustments from game to game, especially following a loss, is a true test of how good a coach and the system his team uses are. Of course, when it comes to rivalry games, sometimes even the best planned adjustments do not work out – even when the team does a lot of things right.
Orlando’s Jack Rodewald celebrates his second goal of the season Sunday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
Sunday night at the Amway Center, Orlando Solar Bears head coach Anthony Noreen had what he thought were the right changes to avenge a loss to the Florida Everblades the night before. Instead, the Everblades foiled Noreen’s plans by beating the Solar Bears 3-1 in front of an announced crowd of 5,101. Three different players scored for Florida (8-4-0-0, 16 points) while goalie Anthony Peters withstood a 42-shot barrage from the home team, making 41 saves to earn the win.
“After the game last night, we were pretty positive with the guys. It was one of those nights where maybe we saw with the rosey-eyed glasses a little bit because [when] we went back and watched the video we weren’t as good as maybe we thought we were. [We] made some adjustments today and challenged the guys,” Noreen said. “From a process standpoint, for us as a staff, I thought it was the best game we’ve played by far all season. Puck possession numbers were probably the best, scoring chances were probably the best, odd man breaks. I mean every category except putting the puck in the net.”
A slow start from Orlando (4-3-1-0, 9 points) allowed the Everblades to get a jump with two goals in a span of 5:47 in the first period to take the lead. Solar Bears netminder Ryan Massa ran into some tough luck at the 5:16 mark when a long shot by Mark Nemec was tipped by Brant Harris in front. The redirection allowed the puck to squirt past the goalie and trickle across the goal line for Harris’ fourth goal of the season.
Just before the midpoint of the opening frame, Florida defenseman Mike Cornell threw the puck toward the net. It glanced off a defender and the direction change was enough to fool Massa. The score was the first of the year for Cornell.
While that was going on, Peters was staying sharp. His best save of the stanza came when Matt Rupert broke in all alone, forcing the netminder to make a right pad save. It was just one of 16 stops the Florida goalie made to keep the home team scoreless.
Peters and Massa each started off the second period with big saves – Massa on an odd-man rush and Peters beating Orlando’s Eric Faille from point-blank range. Moments after the Peters’ save, Florida’s Mike Aviani scooped up the rebound of a Rob Florentino shot and shot it up and over Massa to give the visitors a three-goal cushion.
As Orlando’s frustration grew, tempers began to boil up. At the midway point of the period, a line scrum featuring Florida’s Aviani and Gabriel Desjardins and the Solar Bears’ Brett Findlay and Brad Richard. All four ended up in the penalty box but the breakout of hostilities was what Orlando needed.
Late in the period, the Everblades were hit with overlapping penalties, giving the Solar Bears some five-on-three power play time. Although they did not score, the pressure created and kept up led to Jack Rodewald converting the rebound of an Eric Baier shot for a power play tally and his second of the season at 17:02.
Rodewald credited the earlier scrum and the Solar Bears banding together with being a momentum changer.
“It was somewhat of a sucker punch. That’s what kind of started it,” Rodewald said. “It gave us some energy and we were able to generate a few chances over the next few shifts.”
An early third period double minor whistled against Florida’s Evan Bloodoff gave Orlando a four-minute window to get back into the game. The Everblades’ aggressive penalty kill held the Solar Bears to two shots during the man advantage, effectively taking the crowd and the home team out of the game. Orlando’s renewed sense of urgency – something that had seemed to be missing for most of the night – reawakened but try as they might, the Solar Bears could not dent the wall that Peters had thrown up. Massa (29 saves) was not as busy but he did give Orlando a chance by blanking the visitors in the third.
When asked about how he would go about keeping the team from getting down on itself because of the two straight losses, Noreen squarely put the onus on himself and assistant coach John Snowden to keep the players focused on the system.
“We’re a process-oriented team. That starts with me. When the game ends, I don’t ever talk about win or lose or anything like that. I talk about how did we play. Let’s just be honest, the facts are the facts, here’s how we played within our system. Tonight was the best game we’ve played within our system hands down, he said. “The challenging thing is do you go back and get better on Tuesday, Wednesday and now you’re even better on Thursday or do we take that step back. Obviously it starts with us and our staff. We have to make sure we take that step forward. We don’t let the results bother us. We see when we play our system the right way and when we’re hungry and play with some passion and fire that we’re a pretty good hockey team.”
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.