ORLANDO, FLA – There are not too many times when a 32-year old veteran and a 21-year old rookie can share a “first”. When those firsts happen to deliver a clutch win, it makes them that much more special.
Brendan Miller (Center) made his first professional goal a game-winner Saturday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
The Orlando Solar Bears got “first” goals from defensemen Rory Rawlyk and Brenden Miller while goalie Ryan Massa won his third consecutive start Saturday night as the Solar Bears doubled up the Atlanta Gladiators 4-2 at the Amway Center. The victory – the fourth in a row by Orlando (21-19-2-4, 48 points) – pulled it within four points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the ECHL’s Eastern conference.
Rawlyk, the veteran playing in his fourth game for the Solar Bears, notched his first tally to tie the game before Miller scored his first professional goal to provide the game-winner and send the mainly partisan announced crowd of 6,894 home happy. They also made head coach Anthony Noreen very happy.
“For Rory – a guy who has come in here [and] who wasn’t planning on playing professional hockey this year – the first conversation I had with him I knew no matter where his game was I knew how important he was going to be for our locker room because of what his character is and because of his leadership capabilities. He’s one of the guys the guys rally behind,” Noreen said. “For Brenden, this game’s not easy. He’s certainly had his ups and downs this year and was out of the lineup for a long stretch there. There were some hard talks, some hard meetings. It’s the lesson of life: you just keep coming, you just keep showing up. I told him get yourself back in there and force our hand to not be able to take you out. I think he’s gotten better and better every game.”
The game’s opening period went by in scoreless fashion despite each team recording 14 shots on net. Both Massa and Matt Ginn for Atlanta (26-18-3-2, 57 points) were rock solid between the pipes, each putting themselves in the right place to make saves.
Orlando opened the scoring 8:45 into the second. It came when Matt Rupert made a backhanded touch pass to the slot area where Erik Bradford lasered a shot past Ginn for his fifth of the season. The Gladiators answered back a mere 16 seconds later when Derek Nesbitt cashed in on an odd-man rush with a shot that clanged off the inside of the far goalpost and in for his team-leading 23rd tally.
Things got interesting pretty quickly. With Atlanta on a power play. Orlando’s Johnny McInnis made an offensive foray into the Gladiators end. As he went to cut around a defender, he appeared to be tripped up but no penalty was signaled. Seconds later. Massa made a save on a one-timer by Nesbitt but the rebound hit Thomas Frazee and bounded across the goal line for goal number nine by the Atlanta winger.
Not too long ago, a sudden turn of events like that would have taken the Solar Bears off their game. On this night, however, things would be different.
” Two months ago, three months ago for sure, there would have been doors getting slammed, sticks getting slammed,” Noreen noted. “I think we’ve learned to be even-keeled while at the same time letting things motivate us. That was kind of the message – we’re not going to let that beat us.”
Rawlyk turned the game around a little under five minutes into the final frame. Eric Faille sent the puck back toward the point near the side boards. Rawlyk stepped into a shot that went top corner on the far side past a partially screened Ginn (36 saves).
“I’ve been getting a few shots from that area so I just tried to angle it in and shoot it as hard as I could on net and take the right angle and [I] was lucky it found the net there,” Rawlyk said.
The score remained tied for eight minutes until Miller erased the zero from his goals scored stat. Jumping up into an odd-man rush, Miller took a perfect feed from Jack Rodewald in the circle to Ginn’s right and went short side for the goal.
“It feels amazing. I mean I’ve been waiting a while here. It’s been six months or something so it’s nice to finally get one so I don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Miller said about the goal.
With Massa (35 saves) playing yet another solid game, the Solar Bears forced Atlanta to pull Finn with 1:25 left in regulation. McInnis took advantage of the empty net, scoring his thirteenth with 20.1 seconds to go to salt the game away.
Rawlyk, who played in England for two seasons directly prior to this year, said that he senses the Solar Bears are starting to live up to the potential many saw in the squad from day one.
“This is a good hockey team. We’ve got awesome goaltending. Our defensemen are big and strong back there and we’ve got super fast forwards ,” he said. “Like you’ve seen these last four games, no one is doing anything extraordinary. Everyone’s just working, skating and moving the puck, supporting each other. That’s what is carrying us right now.”
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