ORLANDO, FLA – With every point from divisional games being a matter of near life and death, the Orlando Solar Bears’ stretch of 15 games against South division rivals will go a long way to deciding whether or not the Solar Bears make it to the Kelly Cup playoffs in April. Sunday afternoon, Orlando missed an opportunity to come away with two points against the Norfolk Admirals – and it was mostly thanks to a former teammate.
Orlando goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo (center) fends off a shot during Sunday’s game against Norfolk (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Toronto prospect T.J. Foster, who was in Orlando to start the season before being recalled and eventually reassigned to Norfolk, scored twice in regulation and once in the shootout as the visiting Admirals (19-28-4-0, 42 points) edged the Solar Bears (26-18-6-3, 61 points) 3-2 in a five-round penalty shot decider in front of an announced crowd of 5,868. The point Orlando earned for getting past regulation put them in a three-way tie for second place in the South division with South Carolina and Greenville, both of which lost on Sunday.
The loss was a tough one for Orlando to take as the Solar Bears scored twice in a span of 2:28 early in the third period to erase a Norfolk lead on a first period goal by Foster. The Solar Bears and their fans looked on in horror as Foster poked home a loose puck behind goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo in the crease with 1:13 left in regulation. After a scoreless overtime, Alex Gacek – who scored the second Solar Bears goal in the third – and Foster matched shootout goals in the second round. It eventually went to a sudden-death fifth round where Frankie Simonelli beat the Orlando goalie to salvage the third game for the Admirals.
“I didn’t like the way we came out and played our first two periods. I think the guys would agree with me that it wasn’t our best hockey,” Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky said following the contest. “We let a team stick around and eventually they burned us.”
Given how Orlando had handled Norfolk in the first two games of the three game set, especially in Friday’s 7-4 win, it was fair to say that the home fans expected to see more of the same. What they saw was a somewhat sluggish opening first period by both teams that saw a combined 21 shots (11-10 in favor of Orlando).
There was only one goal in the frame and it belonged to the visitors. A little shy of five minutes after the opening faceoff, Norfolk’s Domenic Alberga managed to outfight two defenders and made a pass to Foster below the goal line to Kaskisuo’s right. With no one near him, Foster skated to the front of the net and sent a backhander over the goalie’s shoulder for his 12th tally of the season, tenth since being assigned to the Admirals.
Orlando tried to turn up the heat in the second period but Norfolk goalie Philippe Desrosiers was having none of it. After fending off two Solar Bears power plays and eleven shots in the first, the St-Hyacinthe, Quebec native turned away two Orlando advantages and 15 more shots on net in the middle frame. For his part, Vantaa, Finland’s Kaskisuo was just as tough as he withstood a pair of Admirals power plays and nine shots to keep it a one-goal game after two.
Whatever was discussed in the Solar Bears locker room between the second and third periods must have been a wake-up call as they finally have their legs and skates moving. Orlando had a 5-1 shot advantage a little over three minutes into the final frame. The hustle paid off at the 5:02 mark when defenseman Ben Danford went on the offensive, taking a pass from Chris Crane and nailing a shot from the faceoff circle to Desrosiers’ right into the far corner for his sixth goal of the season.
“When I see the opportunity to go, I like to go,” Danford said. “In that situation, we stuck to our plan – chipping pucks up the wall. I got the puck on the right side on a two-on-one and really just shooting [for the] far pad for [a] rebound and [I was] fortunate that it went in.”
Moments later, Crane had the puck on his stick behind the Norfolk and swung around to send a pass toward the slot. Shane Conacher beat a defender to the puck, pushing it in the direction of Gacek who was wide open. Gacek, who has been a brilliant addition to the lineup, went high to the blocker side of the Norfolk netminder for his 20th goal of the season, 12 of them coming in a Solar Bears jersey.
Gacek said the energy on the bench following the two quick strikes was there but the toll of playing four games in less than five full days (and seven games in just over ten days overall) was setting in.
“It felt good obviously to take the lead but like I touched on, having so many games in so many nights that I felt – and I think other guys felt – the focus wasn’t totally there because fatigue was starting to set in [during] the final minutes,” Gacek said. “That’s a crucial time [and] that’s a crucial learning experience to really dig down deep in the final five [minutes] when we have the lead because later in the season that could happen.”
When Joe Perry took a penalty with 8:48 left in regulation, Orlando was leading 40-24 on the shot clock high above center ice. Norfolk began pounding away at Kaskisuo, who did his best to hold off the onslaught. A second penalty to Daniel Maggio gave the Admirals a second advantage with 2:33 to go, adding even more pressure. Halfway through the power play, Norfolk head coach Robbie Ftorek pulled Desrosiers for an extra attacker, giving his team a six-on-four advantage. It worked when Alberga sent the puck sliding toward the crease. It snuck through Kaskisuo’s pads and stopped on the goal line next to the post on the netminder’s right. A sea of bodies went scrambling for the disc but it was the stick of a diving Foster that pushed it across the line, tying the game at two.
Over the final 8:48 of the third, the Admirals outshot the Solar Bears 12-1 and the overtime period was more of the same. Norfolk launched six more in the extra period but Kaskiuso, who finished with 40 saves, was rock solid. Desrosiers (40 saves) only faced one Orlando attempt in the overtime and stopped it, setting up the shootout where Simonelli closed it out with a backhander into the top of the net.
Kaskisuo, who deserved a better fate in the contest, said he was proud of how the Solar Bears battled back in the third period
“We stepped up as a team in the third period. It’s been a tough stretch for us with a lot of games in so many days. I’m proud of how our guys came back and battled in the third period to get the lead,” the rookie goalie said. “It was an unfortunate bounce with the goalie out and they get [it] in front and it hits the post and it was somewhere behind me but that happens. Then the three-on-three overtime anything can happen [and] it was end to end and the the shootout, you never know how that’s going to go.”
Notes: Foster finished the weekend series with two goals and three assists plus a shootout score against his former teammates… Norfolk went 1-for-5 on the power play, the lone score being Foster’s game-tying tally, while Orlando finished 0-for-3…So far during the 15-game divisional run, the Solar Bears are 5-3-1-1 for 12 out of a possible 20 points. Orlando also took five of a possible six points out of the first three games of a ten-game homestand with the next three coming against the Atlanta Gladiators on Wednesday, Friday and next Sunday all at the Amway Center… Following the game, defenseman Brenden Miller was seen leaving with multiple sticks in his hands. Later the AHL transaction list reported that he had been recalled by the Toronto Marlies.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.