DULUTH, GA – Thursday night at the Infinite Energy Arena, the Orlando Solar Bears were looking to break a seven game winless streak that started at home against the team they were facing, the Atlanta Gladiators. They played well enough to win but some familiar faces on the other side of the ice had other ideas.
Alex Gacek broke a tie midway through the third period and Lindsay Sparks put a cap on the night with an empty net goal as the host Gladiators (8-5-0-1, 17 points) downed the Solar Bears (2-7-2-0, 6 points) 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 1,439. Both Gacek and Sparks had two points in the contest while another pair of former Solar Bears – Brady Vail and Taylor Stefishen – each had an assist and goalie Sean Bonar (yet another player who once called Orlando home) posted 37 saves to pick up the victory.
The loss overshadowed multi-point nights by Orlando’s Josh Winquist (goal, assist) and J.J. Piccinich (two assists) as the Solar Bears failed to score more than two goals for the fourth time during the recent slump.
Things did not start well for the visitors from Central Florida as Atlanta opened the scoring less than two minutes into the opening frame. Just 1:51 in, Stefishen – who never suited up for the Solar Bears but saw his ECHL playing rights traded to them in 2016 while in Europe, sent the puck to Tanner Pond. Pond in turn sent it ahead to Luke Sandler who dashed into the Orlando defensive zone. His original shot was knocked down by Solar Bears goalie Mackenzie Skapski but Sandler followed through and deposited the rebound into the net for his third goal of the season.
It was the only blemish in the first period for Skapski, who was making just his second start for Orlando since joining the team on November 4th. He rebounded nicely to turn away Sparks on a short-handed breakaway, one of ten saves he made on the way to a 29-save night.
Skapski’s teammates got that goal back early in the middle stanza when Winquist went to work. Defenseman Jeff King started the play with a stretch pass that sent Piccinich and Winquist in one a two-on-none break. Piccinich held the puck long enough to draw Bonar to his side before flipping a pass to Winquist who rapped it home for his fourth of the year and his 50th professional tally.
Bonar and Skapski then settled into a battle of wills as each came up with big saves over the next ten minutes of action. Skapski denied Sparks with a solid blocker glove save that was matched soon after by Bonar who showed a quick glove hand to snatch a hot shot from Orlando’s Matias Cleland.
Sparks and Gacek had their fingerprints all over the go-ahead goal at the 11:05 mark of the frame. Sparks got control of the puck on the half boards and sent a pass to Gacek below the goal line. Gacek quickly looked up and saw Ben Marshall open in the low slot. Gacek made a perfect pass and Marshall ripped a one-time past Skapski for his third goal of the season and a 2-1 lead that the Gladiators took to the third period.
Bonar, who was with the Solar Bears during the 2014-15 season and played for Orlando during that season’s All-Star game, opened the final twenty minutes with a series of three consecutive saves to hold the lead. He held the fort until the 9:25 mark when Chris Crane took a feed from Winquist on the back side of the play and knocked it into the back of the net for his fifth of the year. Piccinich picked up his second point of the night with the secondary helper.
Ninety seconds later, Gacek stuck a dagger into his former team. Josh Atkinson did most of the work, carrying the puck into the Orlando end before sending a pass back to the point where Gacek took the puck and fired a shot that beat a screened Skapski for his fourth of the season and a lead that the Gladiators would not give up.
Orlando pulled Skapski with a little under two minutes left in regulation in a last ditch effort to get a tying score. Bonar stood tall and knocked away a couple of shots before Sparks finished off the scoring, taking a pass from Vail and sliding the puck into the vacated net with 5.1 seconds left.
Notes: Orlando outshot Atlanta 39-33 in the contest, falling just one shot shy of what would have been its fifth 40-shot effort in eleven games… Orlando’s power play went 0-for-2 in the contest while Atlanta went 0-for-4… With his two points, Winquist extended his point streak to four games (2 goals, 5 assists) and now leads the Solar Bears with 11 points (4 goals, 7 assists)… Max Novak led the Solar Bears with nine shots on net. Sparks led the Gladiators with five shots on goal… Forward Martins Dzierkals, who was assigned by the Toronto Marlies to Orlando on Wednesday, made his professional debut playing on a line with Jean Dupuy and Logan Nelson. Dzierkals finished the night with three shots on net… The Gladiators are now 3-0 against the Solar Bears this season… Orlando will continue its three-game weekend road trip Friday night in Greenville against the Swamp Rabbits.Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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