Orlando rookie Brian Christie (26, left) scored his first professional goal in Saturday’s win (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
ORLANDO, FLA – When the Orlando Solar Bears hired Anthony Noreen as the team’s third head coach, He promised that his squad would play with passion, grit, hustle, skill and plenty more adjectives that he expected would lead to great success. Saturday night, the Solar Bears of Noreen’s vision finally arrived.
Boy, did they ever.
Playing in front of an ECHL franchise record announced attendance of 11,075, T.J. Foster scored twice to lead Orlando (29-24-3-5, 66 points) to a resounding 6-3 victory over the Adirondack Thunder (35-22-2-4, 76 points) at the Amway Center. Rylan Schwartz added a goal and an assist while Brady Vail and Jack Rodewald each chipped in with two helpers as the Solar Bears responded to Thursday’s bad loss with an equally brilliant win.
The difference between the Solar Bears from Thursday and Saturday’s group effory was not so much physical from a roster standpoint as it was mental. Noreen had promised a team with a certain swagger at the “Bear Den” and he delivered on that promise in a big way.
“If you asked anyone, you know people who knew me in Youngstown and my teams, that’s what we were for four years. Any team that came into our building – win, lose or draw – you felt us,” Noreen said. “We finished every hit, blocked every shot, scored a lot of goals and defended. That’s what Solar Bears hockey is going to be. From here on out that’s what is expected, that’s what we’re going to bring in – those are the types of the guys we want. That (tonight) was for me the first time where I’ve really seen exactly what I want our team to play like and look like and we did it for sixty minutes.”
With no where to go but up after Thursday’s lackluster performance, the Solar Bears players held a players-only meeting Saturday morning. Whatever was said in that meeting, combined with Noreen and assistant coach John Snowden “challenging” the players on an individual level, made the Amway Center one of the toughest places for a road team to win at in the ECHL once more.
Adirondack opened the game by taking a page out of their Thursday game plan, pinning the Solar Bears in their defensive end for most of the opening two minutes. It proved to be arguably the best two minutes the a Thunder had all night.
Orlando opened the scoring 2:47 into the first thanks to some veteran skill and a rookie’s instincts. Vail took an offensive draw in the Adirondack end, winning it back to Rodewald on the edge of the face-off circle. Rodewald ripped a shot that Brian Christie, playing in just his second professional game, redirected past Thunder goalie Drew Fielding for the newbie’s first pro goal.
“Obviously it is a great sort of monkey off my back I guess. Getting one under my belt kind of loosened me up I think for the rest of the game,” Christie – who just finished his college career at Merrimack College less than a handful of days ago – said. “On the play it was a great face-off. Vailer won it back to Rode (Rodewald) and Ride got a shot. I was just trying to go to the net, do what I was supposed to do and got a fortunate bounce.”
Less than six minutes later, Vail threw down the gloves to battle Adirondack’s Ryan Lomberg – he of the four goal effort on Thursday – in a spirited fight that thrilled the large crowd. Twenty-one seconds later, Mark Louis sent Schwartz away on a rush with a pretty stretch pass. Schwartz got loose for a shot that Fielding stopped but the speedy winger grabbed the rebound and stuffed a wraparound shot home for his 16th of the season.
Bursting with confidence, the Solar Bears pushed the lead to three just 38 ticks into the middle frame. Coming out of the penalty box after the end of a carryover penalty, defenseman Eric Baier jumped into the rush, took a feed from Rodewald in the slot and out-battled a defender to score his ninth of the season with a wrist shot that found the back of the net.
Late in the period, some digging by Austin Block led to Erik Bradford scooping a loose puck over Fielding’s right shoulder for the rookie forward’s seventh of the year. Adirondack’s Mathieu Brodeur put the Thunder on the board with a point blast that beat Orlando goalie Ryan Massa to the top corner with 19.6 seconds left in the stanza to trim the Solar Bears lead to 4-1 after two.
The home crowd had plenty more to cheer for in the third period. It started when Rodewald went toe-to-toe with former Solar Bear Mike Bergin right off the face-off. Massa (36 saves) let up a bad goal to Adirondack’s Terrence Wallin 2:14 into the frame to make it a two-goal margin and quiet the rowdy home fans.
Orlando’s response to Wallin’s third goal of the year was swift. Less than a minute elapsed before a Massa save led to an odd-man offensive foray for the Solar Bears. The play ended with Denver Manderson feeding Foster who drilled his shot home for his 22nd of the year.
Foster picked up his second of the night when he redirected a shot by newcomer Chris Bradley past Fielding (20 saves) at the 9:34 mark. Thunder forward James Henry capped the scoring with a short-handed goal with less than three minutes to go.
In between, things got ugly when Lomberg – with Brenden Miller in tow – rolled over Massa in the crease. Massa did not appreciate the meeting and came up ready to swing away at Lomberg. Massa remained hot through the final horn, letting the player who torched teammate Rob Madore on Thursday know that the contact was not appreciated and nearly sparked a brawl in the process.
With the teams meeting again Sunday evening, Foster said he expected that tempers may still be frayed but that the contest will be too important for either side to let it get out of hand.
“I don’t know how much rough stuff will be carried over. Obviously they’re going to come out hard. The series is one-one and both teams want to get the series win,” Foster said. “There might be a fight or two, I don’t know. That’s part of the game, that’s the way it goes. We’re going to go in with the same preparation, same mindset as tonight and hopefully we can get a win.”
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