ORLANDO, FLA – On paper, Sunday afternoon’s ECHL game between the Orlando Solar Bears and the Jacksonville Icemen was simply game 72 of the 2018-19 season. For fans of both teams, it was a possible first round matchup in the Kelly Cup playoffs that begin later this week. For Solar Bears rookie forward Dylan Fitze, however, it was a chance to regain his game legs after missing a couple of contests.
Fitze didn’t just find his legs – he proved that he is more than ready to hit the postseason flying.
Fitze scored twice and goalie Connor Ingram stayed hot with 30 saves to lead Orlando (41-25-5-1, 88 points) to a dominating 5-2 victory over Jacksonville in front of an announced sellout of 9,049 at the Amway Center. Colby McAuley and Alexander Kuqali each contributed a goal and an assist to the effort while Troy Bourke and Alexei Lipanov chipped in two assists apiece as the Solar Bears won their fifth game in six games to close the season.
Orlando’s Dylan Fitze (13, purple) sets up in front of Jacksonville goalie Angus Redmond while Icemen defender Kayle Doetzel looks for the puck (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The loss was costly to Jacksonville (36-32-2-2, 76 points) as it combined with a stunning win by South Carolina, the Icemen dropped to fourth place in the South Division. That drop will pit Jacksonville with the top seeded Florida Everblades in the Divisional Semifinals while the Solar Bears and Stingrays get together for the second straight year in the first round.
“Obviously in any game throughout the year, you want to have a good game and it felt good out there after missing the last couple. I wanted to get my legs under me and get ready for the playoffs again,” Fitze said. “I think I was just fortunate [that] I got one bounce on the second one and on the first one Akim [Aliu] did a good job to keep it in and I found myself alone in the slot.”
With nothing to play for except sending a message ahead of a possible postseason meeting, the Solar Bears found themselves a little slow at the start. That beginning was amplified when Jacksonville’s Kris Newbury shocked everyone with a hard shot that beat Ingram from the faceoff circle to the goalie’s right 26 seconds after the opening draw. For Newbury, it was his 16th goal of the season and came on the Icemen’s first shot of the contest.
Newbury’s tally was just the first salvo from a team desperate to hold onto its position in the standings. The Icemen piled up six shots in the first 1:04 of play and by the time Orlando registered its initial shot on Jacksonville goalie Angus Redmond, the visitors had seven and with six minutes elapsed, the margin was 10-3.
The momentum that Jacksonville was building came to a bit of a halt with 13:46 to play in the opening frame. It stopped because Ingram, who was working on a personal four game winning streak, came up with a glorious catching glove save on the Icemen’s Alexis D’Aoust. D’Aoust ended up with the puck in the slot and looked to have the Solar Bears netminder dead to rights but Ingram’s cat-like post-to-post movement and lightning quick glove snared the shot before it could get past him.
Solar Bears goalie Connor Ingram (51, purple) peers around Icemen forward Kris Newbury looking for the puck during Sunday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“Ingram stood his ground and he gave us a chance to win,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said about the play of his netminder. “We got our legs under us and we were fortunate that he was there to give us that chance.”
Shortly thereafter, Jacksonville’s Christophe Lalancette – who played for Orlando at the start of the season – took a penalty. It came back to haunt him and his teammates when the Solar Bears found the back of the net. Aliu started it all by holding the offensive blueline. Eventually he pushed the puck over to Fitze. Standing all alone with the puck in the right faceoff circle, he drilled a short side shot high over Redmond for his 13th of the season.
As Ingram and Redmond settled down, the tempers began to flare. Just past the midpoint of the first period, a scrum broke out with Orlando’s Mike Monfredo and Jacksonville’s Garet Hunt – the ECHL’s all-time leader in penalty minutes – got a hold of each other. The pair earned minor penalties with Hunt getting nabbed for an interference infraction but nothing came of it and the teams ended the stanza even at 1-1.
The slow start in the opening frame was of concern to the Solar Bears, so much so that it caused a discussion in the locker room between periods.
“We came in [at] the first intermission and we knew we had to be better and just try to stay out of the trouble that they try to cause after whistles,” Solar Bears forward and Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Troy Bourke said about the break time discussion. “I think we did a good job after that.”
When Lalancette drew his second penalty of the contest 1:06 into the second period, the Solar Bears began salivating at the chance to do more damage. Just 38 seconds into the man advantage, McAuley put a shot on net that Redmond stopped. Alexei Lipanov grabbed the rebound and fired but again the Jacksonville netinder was up to the challenge. The rebound off of Lipanov’s try got far enough away to allow Fitze to gather and flip it home for his second of the afternoon and 14th of the season.
Up by two and knowing that the Icemen had played Saturday night in southwest Florida while it slept at home, Orlando found a surge of energy just past the ten minute mark of the middle frame that melted the Icemen. It began at the 10:48 mark when a shout by Bourke was stopped but the rebound dropped into the blue paint. McAuley was first on the scene and he poked it in for his 15th of the year.
Orlando forward Colby McAuley (85, purple) celebrates his 15th goal of the season Sunday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The Solar Bears continued to press and 78 seconds later, Mitch Hults sent the puck back to teammate Michael Brodzinski at the point. Brodzinski curled off the boards toward the high slot and fired away, catching Redmond by surprise for his 9th of the year and a 4-1 lead.
The roar of the home crowd had barely begun to ebb when it rose again. This time it was Kuqali who set off the fans once more. Chris LeBlanc set up the play when he got Redmond to play him and then passed the puck to Kuqali, who went upstairs for his third goal of the season and second with the Solar Bears at the 13:21 mark.
“I think we just kept it simple. We got pucks up the wall, we got it in behind their d[efense] and we just grinded them down low,” Fitze said about Solar Bears second period spurt. “I think a lot of the goals came from plays [that] went from east to west, low to high, got shots through. Brodzinski’s goal, he’s walking down, we get it up to the point to him there and he’s got an opportunity to shoot. Kuq’s [Kuqali] goal we were just rolling down low and he finds himself on the back door and Colby’s goal he’s driving the net. It’s just keeping it out of the middle,getting it behind their d and working [on] them down low.”
With the outcome of the game pretty close to being decided, the final frame became a twenty minute exercise in message sending. It started early when Orlando defenseman Cody Donaghey and Jacksonville’s Lalancette discarded the gloves and threw down 3:44 into the period. From there, the anger simmered but never again grew to ignition level although it almost did when D’Aoust appeared to be helped into a collision with Ingram that drew a roughing penalty on Monfredo (the ninth of the game between the two teams) but nothing more.
Jacksonville did pull slightly closer on the scoreboard thanks to a power play opportunity. With just inside of six minutes remaining in regulation, Hayden Shaw hit Hunt at the Orlando blueline with a pass that allowed Jakcsonville’s emotional leader to split the defense and break in alone. He was able to snap a perfectly placed shot into the top corner of the net for his 9th goal of the season.
From there, Ingram closed the door on the Icemen and the regular season, sending Jacksonville off to wait to learn its seeding fate while Orlando celebrated a season well finished with another one yet to begin.
Jacksonville’s Jake Randolph (left) and Orlando’s Alex Schoenborn line up for a center ice faceoff during Sunday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Asked about the play of Fitze and the rest of the rookies on the roster, Berehowsky was bubbling over with pride with how they as a group have responded.
“Fitzy played a heck of a game tonight. He’s got a great shot, he’s got a great work ethic,” Berehowsky said. “As far as all our young guys, I couldn’t be more proud of them. This is a team that I’m extremely proud to be a coach of. I’m extremely proud that they trust me and on the flip side I trust them. I think we’ve built a good relationship. Everybody on the team is very close in there [locker room] and hopefully this is just the first step for us.”
The Solar Bears will have two days to prepare for South Carolina and game one on Wednesday at the Amway Center. Game two is set for Friday also at the Amway before the series heads to North Charleston on Wednesday, April 17th.
Notes: Final shots were 37-32 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 2-for-5 on the power play while the Icemen were 1-for-5 with the man advantage… The 41 wins by the Solar Bears and 88 points were the second biggest totals for the franchise, bested only by the 2013-14 team which amassed 43 victories and 91 points… Orlando ended 2018-19 with 21 home wins and 44 points at the Amway Center, also second best to the effort from 2013-14 (24-9-2-1, 51 points)… Bourke’s two assists gave him a team-leading 13th multi-point game this season… Fitze netted his fourth game-winning goal, tying him with Trevor Olson for the team lead during the 2018-19 campaign.
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