ORLANDO, FLA – Given the way the team has played at the Amway Center over its first two seasons, the struggles the Orlando Solar Bears have had at home this year have coaches, players and fans more than a bit perplexed and frustrated. Thursday night Orlando had a chance to move in the right direction but again the result was less than total satisfaction.
Vince Williams (striped tie, right) watches play on the ice (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
A goal credited to Brandon Wong 1:16 into overtime gave the red-hot South Carolina Stingrays a 2-1 victory over the Solar Bears in front of an announced crowd of 5,577. It was the Stingrays’ eleventh straight win while the loss extended Orlando’s losing streak at the Amway to five.
By getting to the overtime period, the Solar Bears (25-20-4-1, 55 points) were able to gain a point on both the fourth place Elmira Jackals and the fifth place Greenville Road Warriors in the race for the final East division playoff spot. Orlando now trails the Jackals by six points with three games in hand.
“This is a positive here – we got one point already out of a possible six this weekend,” Solar Bears forward Brock Montgomery said. “A couple more wins here would be huge. We’re just trying to stay positive and take it game by game.”
The game-winning goal was simply put a case of how the luck for the two teams is going right now. Wayne Simpson cut through the high slot in the Orlando end. Solar Bears goalie Garret Sparks played the puck but Simpson’s shot went back toward the side of the net Sparks had moved from. Wong was locked up with Orlando defenseman Eric Baier next to the post, creating a perfect cushion for the disc to hit a skate and slide into the open net.
“It’s kind of the way things are going right now,” Orlando head coach Vince Williams lamented.
Neither team seemed to be hitting on all cylinders in the first period. Turnovers and ragged play was the theme for most of the frame as it seemed to be a struggle for each side to get nine shots on net. Even a spirited fight between Orlando’s Carl Nielsen and South Carolina’s Joe Devin failed to shake the cobwebs off of the respective offenses. Stingrays netminder Jeff Jakaitis made arguably his best stop of the stanza early when he flashed his left leg out to deny Stefan Della Rovere while Sparks robbed Derek DeBlois late with a quick glove hand.
An early power play opportunity in the second period nearly got the Solar Bears on the board but Max Nicastro’s bomb from the point caught the post behind Jakaitis and bounded away. Orlando later had back-to-back chances with the man advantage that out the Stingrays (29-18-1-6, 65 points) under the gun for nearly four straight minutes but Jakaitis and the penalty killers held the fort.
Given life by the sussessful penalty kill, South Carolina took the lead late in the frame. Simpson got the puck to Tim Spencer who drove down the boards to Sparks’ left. Spencer’s speed allowed him to turn the Orlando defenseman and cut to the front of the net where he put the puck into the net for his fifth goal of the season.
Sparks, who made 33 saves in the game, kept things close early in the third when he stopped three South Carolina shots in quick succession during a Stingrays power play. Twenty-one seconds after finishing the successful kill, the Solar Bears evened the score when defenseman Spencer McAvoy jumped into a rush and the rebound of his shot was popped in by Montgomery at the 4:56 mark.
“McAvoy made a great play. He jumped up into the rush,” Montgomery said. “That’s one thing he’s been doing all year great for us since we got him.”
The teams combined for 26 shots in the final twenty minutes but Montgomery’s tenth score of the season was the only goal scored. In the overtime frame, Jakaitis (35 saves) turned back a Brett Findlay bid with his shoulder and seconds later Sparks matched it by denying a chance by Lee Moffie. That set up the final fatal sequence for the Solar Bears when Simpson and Wong combined to crush the hopes Orlando had to stop the bleeding at home.
Despite the loss, Williams was encouraged with how his team played, especially in the third.
“We played to win in the third period. I thought we did a lot of really good things and had a lot of quality chances,” he said. “At the end, it was just an unfortunate bounce.”
The Solar Bears will get right back at it Friday night when they host the Gwinnett Gladiators at the Amway Center. Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm.
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