ORLANDO, FLA – It may have been Black Friday in the shopping world but in the ECHL, Friday was the first ever visit of the Newfoundland Growlers to Central Florida as they took on the Orlando Solar Bears in a matchup of the former (Orlando) and current (Newfoundland) AA affiliates of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Orlando goalie Corbin Boes turns away Newfoundland’s James Melindy during first period action Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
And when the final buzzer sounded, it was the visitors who had the upper hand.
Led by two goals from Giorgio Estephan and a solid 25-save effort from goalie Michael Garteig, the visiting Growlers (14-6-0-0) shutout the host Solar Bears (8-7-2-0) 3-0 in front of an announced crowd of 5,106. Orlando rookie goalie Corbin Boes was the lone bright spot for the home team, making 38 saves to establish a new professional high total.
“I think we were prepared for it. I think the goals we gave up were goals that we talked about, situations that we talked about,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said following the contest. “We just didn’t play like we should have. We didn’t pay attention to our details.”
From the outset, the Growlers were on the attack, forcing turnovers and putting a lot of pressure on Boes, who was playing in his first game since last Saturday in Worcester. By the time the first period ended, Newfoundland had piled up 22 shots on net and scored the only goal of the frame when Josh Kestner shoveled a blocked shot across the low slot to Estephan who buried it in the open side for his tenth goal of the season.
“We had 16 turnovers in the first period so I’d like how many shots came off of that,” Berehowsky lamented. “When you play a team with that much offense, you can’t have turnovers and unfortunately we turned the puck over way too much tonight.”
Berehowsky was also less than pleased with his team’s lack of discipline – which has been a problem throughout the first quarter of the season. Early in the second, Orlando’s third straight penalty led to Brady Ferguson zipping a cross-ice pass to Estephan who nailed a one-time shot just inside the post for his second of the game.
Orlando’s Curt Gogol (center) looks for thepuck in front of Growlers goalie Michael Garteig (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The Solar Bears had an opportunity early in the third to get on the board when overlapping penalties to two familiar faces – J.J. Piccinich and Alex Gudbranson – gave Orlando 27 seconds of 5-on-3 man advantage time. It all backfired horribly when Piccinich came out of the penalty box and had a clean breakaway. Although Boes made two saves, Piccinich stayed with the puck and fed Scott Pooley who scored his tenth of the season to give the Growlers a commanding 3-0 lead.
Any thoughts of a comeback by the Solar Bears were thwarted by three more penalties between the 4:59 and 14:03 marks, leaving the home team with little time to mount an offensive.
With a short turnaround for a rematch Saturday night, Berehowsky said he and the team will again take a look at what went wrong and try to fix things.
“We’ll watch video. We’ll make the corrections that we have to make,” Berehowsky said. “We’ll inject some guys in the lineup that can maybe give us some energy.”
Notes: Final shots in the game were 41-25 in favor of Newfoundland… The Growlers went 1-for-6 on the power play while the Solar Bears went 0-for-4… Garteig’s shutout, his second of the season, was the first suffered by Orlando since February 21, 2018 when the Florida Everblades blanked the Solar Bears… Saturday night’s game will be the last for fans to select a “angel” from the WKMG-TV Local 6 Angel Tree setup in the lobby of the Amway Center. It is part of a program that WKMG and the Salvation Army run to make sure that children and seniors have Christmas gifts.
Solar Bears goalie Corbin Boes follows the puck as it heads towards Newfoundland’s Giorgio Estephan (right) during Friday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
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