ORLANDO, FLA – With a crowd of 9,319 very loud and anxious fans ready to explode with every goal and hit in its home opener, the Orlando Solar Bears had a lot of pressure on them to win in front of their faithful followers at the Amway Center Saturday night.
Orlando defenseman Jeff King (purple) scored the first Solar Bears goal at home this season (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Unfortunately, the visiting Atlanta Gladiators had no inclination to stand by and let their hosts off easy.
Phil Lane scored the deciding goal early in the third period as the Gladiators (2-4-0-0) edged the Solar Bears (2-2-0-0) by a final of 5-4. Defenseman Jeff King (1 goal, two assists) and forward Chris Crane (1 goal, 1 assist) led the way for Orlando in a losing effort.
The game itself was a less than defensive struggle as neither team held more than a one goal lead and even then it never lasted for very long.
“I was disappointed. Obviously you want to come out and win a game,” Solar Bears Head Coach Drake Berehowsky lamented following the game. “We did have some signs of the way we want to play but we didn’t do it for sixty minutes.”
The sixth home opener for Orlando did not start off well as an issue with the ice prompted an almost half hour delay in the start of the contest. The holdup seemed to be an omen of things to come as the visiting Gladiators got on the board first one minute and two seconds after the opening face-off. Former Solar Bear Alex Gacek sent the puck around the boards to Colin Jacobs below the goal line. It took but a second for Jacobs to find captain Derek Nesbitt alone in front with a backhanded pass. Nesbitt sniped a shot top corner over the shoulder of Orlando netminder Cal Heeter for his third goal of the year.
The goal seemed to wake the sleeping Bears, who showed some quick strike capability a little bit before the midpoint of the opening period. At the 7:29 mark, King, who made his debut in Orlando late last season, took a pass from Zach Stepan at the point. With Jean Dupuy acting as a distraction in front, lofted a floater in that glided past Atlanta goalie Matt Ginn for his first goal of the young season.
“I don’t remember much,” King said when asked to describe how the goal was scored. “I know the guys got it on the half wall and I just called for it. Coach is always harping on us to get pucks on net so that’s what I did. I looked up and it was in the net so I can’t complain.”
Just 41 seconds later, Orlando took its first lead of the night. King got the puck to rookie Todd Skirving who put a shot on net. Ginn made the stop but the rebound came out to the low slot. Crane beat a Gladiators defender to the disc and quickly fired a shot past the goalie for his third of the season.
The Solar Bears positive margin lasted a little over three minutes when an odd man rush was the home team’s undoing. Ben Marshall started the rush with a pass that sent Patrick D’Amico and Lane away on a two-on-one. Using Lane as a decoy, D’Amico ripped a shot over Heeter’s left shoulder for his second of the year and a tie score.
The four goal first period was just the start of a night where the netminders may have wanted to take cover. A spirited fight between Orlando’s Sam Jardine and Atlanta’s Tanner Pond inaugurated the middle frame before the goals began to fly once more.
Exactly four minutes into the middle frame, the Gladiators Ben Marshall played trailer on a three-on-one rush. Lane dropped a perfect pass and Marshall did the rest, whistling a shot once again into the top corner of the net. For the defenseman, it was his first tally of the year.
Orlando’s power play, which had been dormant in the first three games of the season, awoke from its slumber three minutes later. With Crane providing a screen in front, Josh Winquist let loose with a drive that zipped past Ginn’s catching glove for his second goal in as many games. Then 97 second later, Max Novak took a feed from King and nailed a one-timer into the back of the net for his first and the Solar Bears second consecutive man advantage score.
Orlando’s Mike Monfredo (3, purple) gets a face full of Atlanta’s Luke Sandler during a second period dust up (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Prosperity once again eluded the home team as Atlanta once again tied the score quickly. It came at the 10:19 mark when Pond got loose and sent a wrist shot past Heeter. The goal was a controversial one as King had gotten tangled up with a Gladiators forward and crumpled to the ice when it appeared that his opponent’s stick had caught him in the face. With many of the other players on the ice thinking a penalty was coming, they slowed up which gave Pond enough room to score.
Berehowsky was not happy about the non-call but he refused to blame the loss on it.
“He [King] was cut in two different places,” Berehowsky said. “We still should have come out. We didn’t play the way we wanted to. You can say whatever about the missed call but we didn’t play the way we’re capable of playing for sixty minutes.”
Orlando held a 31-11 shot advantage after forty minutes but were somewhat frustrated with the tie score. That frustration grew when Thomas Frazee set up Lane who redirected a pass home for his third of the year and the eventual game winner.
Try as they might, the Solar Bears could not find the equalizer as Ginn (39 saves) made the saves he had to. In the final minute of regulation, Orlando had one last shot with a power play and Heeter (14 saves) pulled for an extra attacker. The hockey gods were not kind as the puck squirted to the open side of the net but an unlucky bounce denied Dupuy the chance to send the game to overtime.
Crane, one of just two returning players from last year’s Solar Bears team, said that despite the loss the enthusiasm of the home crowd was a good thing for the new team members to experience.
“This is a rink that we take pride in. We’ve got a lot of new faces in the room so this was the first game for them [at the Amway Center],” he said. “Like we say, it’s our sixth man out there. The fans, they fire us up every game and unfortunately we came up short tonight.”
Notes: New Solar Bears owner Dan DeVos dropped the ceremonial first puck prior to the game… Orlando outshot Atlanta 43-19 for the game… The Solar Bears were 2-for-7 on the power play while the Gladiators went 0-for-2… Atlanta head coach Chuck Weber, the assistant coach for the 2000-01 IHL Turner Cup champion Orlando Solar Bears team, returned to the City Beautiful for the first time… The two teams will finish their weekend set with a 1:30 p.m. game Sunday at the Amway Center.
Contact the autor at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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