DULUTH, GA – Simply by nature, the longer a winning streak goes along, the more likely it will come to an end. Injuries, illnesses and other outside influences can create a no-win situation just as much as a lack of effort. Friday night, the Orlando Solar Bears met such a convergence and the results were not good.
Casey Pierro-Zabotel had a goal and an assist while teammate Brenden Walker picked up two assists as the Gwinnett Gladiators took down the Solar Bears by a final score of 4-1 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The loss ended Orlando’s three-game winning streak and kept the Solar Bears from gaining any ground in the race for playoff spots in the ECHL’s East division.
Playing their third game in four days, the Solar Bears were seemingly behind the eight ball from the start. With Brett Findlay still out with an undisclosed injury, Jake Cepis was not feeling well and could not answer the bell. Making matters worse, newly acquired forward Peter Sivak was still not available and forward David Broll was traded by the Toronto Maple Leafs (who own Broll’s contract) along with Carter Ashton to the Tampa Bay Lightning, meaning that Orlando (22-16-3-0, 47 points) would have to play a man short.
Solar Bears head coach Vince Williams gave goalie Garret Sparks, who had started the previous seven games, the night off. In his place Williams started backup netminder Sean Bonar who had last seen action on January 10th against the Florida Everblades. Staring back at Bonar from the other end of the ice was former teammate Kent Patterson who was looking to avenge Tuesday night’s loss to his previous employer.
Gwinnett (16-24-2-1, 35 points) got all the scoring it would need in a span of just over two minutes midway through the opening period. Pierro-Zabotel began the outburst when he took a pass from Walker and got a wide open look at the net from the top of the right circle. His shot zipped into the back of the net at the eleven minute mark for his 19th goal of the season.
Two minutes and eleven seconds later, the Gladiators were knocking at the door again. This time, a cross-crease pass by Will MacDonald found Travis Ouellette open and he put the puck in for his fourth score of the year and more importantly a 2-0 lead for his team.
That margin held into the middle frame and it did not take long for the scoreboard to change. A mere 3:21 in, Gwinnett had control of the puck with a delayed penalty coming against the Solar Bears. With the extra attacker on the ice, Joe Stejskal sent the disc back to Bo Dolan at the point. Dolan wound up and fired a shot into traffic. Somehow the shot made its way past Bonar, lighting the goal light for the third time in the game for the Gladiators and for the fourth time in 2014-2015 for Dolan.
While all this was going on, Patterson was spinning himself a well-played game. He was making all the necessary saves and even when a shot did get past him, the hockey gods were on his side. That fact was made clear about eight minutes into the stanza when John McInnis was able to beat the Gwinnett goalie but the goal post kept the puck out of the net.
Defensively, the Solar Bears were doing exactly what they wanted, having limited the Gladiators to 12 shots on net through two periods. The problem was that none of their 17 shots had beaten Patterson. That finally changed 8:54 into the third when Denver Manderson won an offensive zone faceoff back to Carl Nielsen at the point. He quickly fed new teammate Max Nicastro who blasted a shot from the high slot that found the back of the net. It was Nicastro’s first score and point as a Solar Bear and it gave the team some life.
The two teams clamped down in their respective defensive zones the rest of the way, so much so that a mere nine combined shots were recorded. The final shot for Gwinnett came off the stick of James Melindy who in the final minute played a perfect carom off the glass and into the empty Orlando net from his end of the ice.
The 17 shots on net allowed by Orlando was the fewest given up by the team all season.
The two teams will meet again Saturday night in Gwinnett with puck drop set for 7 pm.
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