ESTERO, FLA – Power plays in hockey are supposed to be when a team has an advantage over its opponent. That is unless you happen to play for the Orlando Solar Bears where lately the the best offense may be coming when they are down a man.
Saturday night at Hertz Arena, Solar Bears forward Hunter Fejes scored the final two goals of the game – one while his team was short-handed and the other in overtime – to lead Orlando (4-3-0-0) to a comeback 5-4 victory over the Florida Everblades (2-3-1-0) in front of an announced crowd of 5,242 on Nickelodeon Night. Dylan Fitze and Trevor Olson each netted their first professional goals and Michael Brodzinski picked up his third score of the season as the Solar Bears beat Florida in back-to-back games for the first time since January of 2016.
Fejes’ shorty, which tied the contest, was his third of the season, tying a team record for short-handed tallies in a single season. He also added an assist to run his season totals to seven goals and four assists in just seven games this season while extending his point streak to seven games.
Looking to avenge a loss in Orlando on Friday, the host Everblades opened the scoring 5:22 into the first period. It came when sniper John McCarron was in the right place to grab a rebound of a shot by Justin Auger and beat former teammate and now Solar Bears goalie Martin Ouellette for his second goal of the season.
Florida tried to intimidate its in-state rival with physical but Orlando met the push with some its own. It led to the only fight of the game when the Solar Bears Tayler Thompson dropped the gloves with the Everblades Tommy Thompson (no relation). The fight seemed to wake up the vistors who responded with Brodzinski’s third goal of the year on a one-time blast less than two minutes after the brawl.
What had been a defensive struggle in the opening frame became a wide open shootout in the second. Orlando took its first lead of the night 3:54 into the stanza when Fitze, one of several rookies on the Solar Bears roster, took advantage of a miscommunication by the Everblades to steal the puck and bury a wraparound shot into the net for his very first professional goal.
The Everblades tokk control from there, scoring three times in a span of just under eight minutes to go back in front. At the 5:10 mark, Zach Nastasiuk was in front of the net and redirected a shot by Patrick McCarron past Ouellette for his first of the year.
Two minutes and 39 seconds later, Auger netted his first when he drove to the crease, drew the Orlando netminder out and tucked the puck around him and across the goal line. Then with 6:55 to go in the frame, Thompson lasered a shot into the twine for his first goal of the season. Thompson’s tally gave the Everblades a 4-2 lead that they took into the second intermission.
The Solar Bears came out for the third period hungry for a comeback and that is exactly what they produced. It started five minutes in when Fitze drove the puck into the Florida defensive zone. Seeing Olson heading to the net, Fitze sent the puck in that direction and Olson put it past Everblades goalie Jeremy Helvig for his first as a pro to pull Orlando within 4-3.
When Solar Bears forward Chris LeBlanc went to the penalty box midway through the frame, Florida saw an opportunity to regain its two-goal lead but Fejes had other ideas. Shortly after Brady Shaw was denied on a breakaway attempt, Fejes grabbed a loose puck just inside his defensive zone and headed the other way. He left two Everblades in his wake, going straight to the net and beating Helvig to even the score at 4-4. Despite holding a 16-5 shot advantage in the final twenty minutes, the Solar Bears could not find one more score and the game headed into extra time.
In the overtime, defenseman Cody Donaghey took the puck along the boards and got it to Fejes who was in the faceoff circle to Helvig’s left. He quickly made a move to improve his shot angle and zipped the puck past Helvig’s glove hand for the winner.
Ouellette made 19 saves in between the pipes for Orlando, picking up his third straight victory and second in two days against his former team. At the other end, Helvig turned away 28 of 33 Solar Bears shots in suffering the loss.
Notes: The Solar Bears outshot their opponent for just the second time in seven outings in the contest… Neither team’s power play connected as Orlando went 0-for-6 while Florida was 0-for-2. For the season to date, the Solar Bears are 3-for-33 with the man advantage while their penalty killing units have been successful on 31 of 41 opportunities… The last time Orlando beat Florida on back-to-back night was on January 1st and 2nd of 2016 when they beat the Everblades 5-3 in Estero on New Year’s Day and followed it with a 3-1 victory at home the next night… Fejes joined four former Orlando players with three short-handed goals in a season: J.J. Piccinich (2017-18), Eric Faille (2016-17), Brett Findlay (2016-17) and Brady Vail (2014-15)… Fejes is tied with former Solar Bear Tony Cameranesi for third in the league in points. Cameranesi has six goals and five assists for Manchester… Brodzinski (four games) and Brent Pedersen (three games) both extended point streaks… Orlando is off until next weekend when they visit the Greenville Swamp Rabbits for games on Friday and Saturday.
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