ORLANDO, FLA – The last time the Orlando Solar Bears met the Florida Everblades at the Amway Center, the host Solar Bears completed a three-game sweep of their in-state arch-rivals. It was a thrilling three-game set for the home town fans who were hoping that it was the beginning of bigger things to come. Last Saturday, Florida brought Orlando back to earth a bit with a shootout victory in Estero – the final time during the 2020-21 regular season that the Solar Bears would make to make the three-hour plus trip to southwest Florida.
Tuesday night, the Everblades returned to the City beautiful with revenge on their minds and they got it.
Led by a 25-save performance by goalie Jake Hildebrand, Florida (25-8-0-2) broke the game open with two third period goals on the way to a 3-0 victory over the Solar Bears (17-11-3-1) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,250. John McCarron, Max Cook and Hugo Roy each lit the lamp twice and Hildebrand did the rest, registering his second shutout in five days and the Everblades’ third whitewashing of Orlando this season.
Goalie Clint Windsor was the best player on the ice for the Solar Bears, making 34 saves on 36 shots he faced.
Right away, the game was set up to be a good one. Windsor, who had won the ECHL’s Goalie of the Week two weeks straight, was going up against Hildebrand, who earlier in the day was named the best goalie in the premiere double-A league for his work last week.
Secondly, Solar Bears fans were anxious to see the new look Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky had given his team in the previous 24-plus hours. Two trades, a couple of player signings, the loaning of a goalie to an AHL team and a mass reassignment of four players from AHL San Jose to Orlando had turned over about 1/3 of the roster that had fallen to the Everblades on the weekend. Gone were goalie Michael Lackey (loaned to Hartford), Alan Lyyszczarczyk (traded to Tulsa) and Michael Prapavessis (traded to Utah). In their places were netminder Kris Oldham (signed on Tuesday), defenseman Jordan Schneider (signed on Monday) and the four from San Jose – forwards Joe Garreffa, Krystof Hrabik and Kyle Topping along with defenseman Chaz Reddekopp – who were recalled from the ECHL’s Allen Americans before being reassigned to the Sunshine State.
The first period played out like it was a playoff game. The two goalies, Windsor and Hildebrand, controlled things through the opening twenty minutes and keeping their individual scoresheets clean. Windsor was the busier of the pair, turning away 11 Everblades shots while Hildebrand stopped 7 shots by the home standing Solar Bears.
Florida opened the scoring in the first 24 seconds of the second period thanks in part to a bit of a fluke. An early offensive foray into the Orlando end led to a shot from the wing by Blake Winiecki. Windsor made the save but McCarron was able to get a piece of the rebound and sent it toward the cage. Solar Bears defenseman Mark Auk went sliding into the net behind Windsor and unfortunately for the pair, the puck ended up under Auk across the goal line. McCarron was given credit for his 17th goal of the season.
The remaining 19:36 of playing time in the middle frame was again dominated by the netminders. Hildebrand, who stopped 38 shots plus two more in the shootout on Saturday, remained unscored upon as he rather effortlessly fended off 10Â more Orlando chances. Windsor again was much more busy, seeing a total of 16 shots in the stanza and stopping 15 of them to send the game to the third period with the Solar Bears down 1-0.
Six minutes into the final frame, the Everblades got some insurance. Michael Huntebrinker successfully dug the puck off the boards behind the Orlando net. Huntebrinker skated to the net front and dropped a pass to Cody Sissons who quickly fired on Windsor. Windsor made a right leg save but the rebound skidded into the slot. Cook was able to collect the loose change, do a pirouette and with Windsor screened, slotted a shot just inside the post for his first as a member of the Everblades to put Florida up 2-0.
Three and a half minutes later, the Everblades Logan Roe was sent to the penalty box, giving the Solar Bears a golden chance to get back into the contest. Orlando captain Chris LeBlanc won the faceoff back to Auk who whipped a pass to Jake Coughler who beat Hildebrand – or so he thought. Hildebrand felt he was interfered with and after going to video review, the game officials agreed. The goal was wiped off the board, snuffing out the excitement on the Orlando bench and in the stands.
The Solar Bears only mustered one shot on net during the remaining power play time. Over the course of the final ten minutes of play, Orlando recorded but four shots on Hildebrand. With four minutes left in regulation, Berehowsky pulled Windsor for an extra attacker. It took the Everblades just twelve seconds to take advantage of the empty net when Roy created an offensive zone turnover. With a Solar Bear on either side of him, Roy fired into the cage for his fourth goal of the season to put a cap on the win.
Orlando will be right back at it as the Solar Bears head up to Jacksonville for a Wednesday night tussle at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena at 7 p.m. as part of a four-game mini series that continues through the weekend. Florida is off until Friday when it heads to Greenville for a three-game set with the Swamp Rabbits beginning on Friday.
Notes: Final shots were 37-25 in favor of Florida… Neither team netted a power play tally as the Everblades went 0-for-2 while the Solar Bears finished 0-for-3… Orlando saw its eight-game points streak (6-0-1-1) come to an end. The loss also ended the Solar Bears home win streak at five games… Tuesday’s game started a run of ten straight meetings between the two teams to be played in the City Beautiful between now and the end of the regular season on June 5th. Orlando is now 6-9-2-1 against the Everblades in the 18 games played so far.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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