ORLANDO, FLA – For the first time in almost two weeks, the Orlando Solar Bears got to play a team other than the Florida Everblades on Friday night. Sure, the teams played just three times but based on the results, it made the period seem even longer for the boys from Central Florida. They needed a pick-me-up and thanks to an explosive first period, they may have gotten out of their three-game funk.
Jake Coughler scored his fourth goal in the last three games as part of a trio of opening frame tallies that lifted the host Solar Bears (12-10-2-0) to a 3-2 victory over the Jacksonville Icemen (9-10-1-1) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,250 at the Amway Center. Jerry D’Amigo and J.J. Piccinich each chipped in with a goal in support of netminder Clint Windsor who stopped 25 of 27 Icemen shots including 16 of 17 in the final twenty minutes to secure the win.
The win was especially gratifying for Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky, who found himself with only five healthy defensemen when Devante Stephens was recalled by the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch earlier in the day. Berehowsky and assistant coach Jared Staal ended up playing with four full lines of forwards who did their part in helping out the blueliners.
Orlando knew they were facing a Jacksonville team that was on a three-game winning streak – all of them coming at the expense of the South Carolina Stingrays – and always seemed to step up against its in-state rival. The Icemen got an immediate change to set the tone with a power play just 1:13 into the opening period. The Solar Bears had other plans and when Jacksonville mishandled the puck inside its offensive zone, the home team cashed in. Aaron Luchuk raced out of the zone and tracked down the loose puck. He skated it into the Icemen defensive zone on an odd-man rush and laid a perfect cross-slot pass to D’Amigo on the backside of the play. D’Amigo steered the biscuit past Icemen goalie Charles Williams for his third of the season at the 2:11 mark.
Four minutes later, Orlando put pressure on the Icemen and it resulted in another tally. Tristin Langan went deep into the Jacksonville end and forced a turnover and sent the puck back to Mark Auk at the point. Auk found a shooting lane and fired toward the net where Coughler redirected it into the short side of the cage for his team-leading tenth goal of the year.
With a couple of seconds more than four minutes remaining in the frame, the Solar Bears struck again. Just as they were finishing a successful penalty kill, Alex Kuqali sent to puck into the neutral zone to Coughler. Coughler entered the Jacksonville end along the boards and encountered two defenders. Coughler was able to split the two opponents and from his knees executed a pass to Piccinich who was busting toward the net in the clear. Piccinich started on his forehand, went backhand to to get Williams sliding and quickly drew it back to his forehand and slid the puck into the open side of the cage for his third of the season and a commanding 3-0 Orlando lead after one.
Jacksonville knew it had forty minutes to get back into the contest and trimmed the deficit to 3-1 quickly. It took a mere 56 seconds for the Icemen to score when a defensive zone turnover left the puck on the stick of Nick Saracino. Saracino pulled it past Windsor before putting a shot into the crease. His try didn’t go but Ara Nazarian was there to cash in on the rebound for his seventh tally of the season.
With the Icemen hunting for a second score, the intensity of the game ramped up. At the 7:37 mark, Orlando rookie defenseman Luke McInnis and Jacksonville’s Nazarian dropped the gloves at center ice and went at it. Both players got a few licks in before McInnis caught Nazarian with a flurry of punches before the pair tumbled to the ice.
The back half of the middle stanza was a parade of power plays for the visitors. Jacksonville had two man-advantage opportunities in the final five minutes but Orlando’s penalty killers held the Icemen to a mere one recorded shot on net. The Solar Bears did have a scare when with 1:07 to go before the break, a race for a loose puck was nearly a disaster when it flipped over Windsor and hit the post before being cleared away.
The Icemen threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Solar Bears in the third period, launching a 17-shot barrage on Windsor. They were able to close to within 3-2 at the 13:32 mark when Jason Binkley set up a wide open Derek Lodermeier in front for a redirect score, his third of the season. Orlando buckled down from there, shutting the door to come away with the win.
With the victory, the Solar Bears moved to 3-1-0-0 against the Icemen this season with another matchup set for Saturday night at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville at 7 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 27-24 in favor of the Icemen… Neither team connected on the power play as Jacksonville went 0-for-7 while Orlando was 0-for-3… The Solar Bears have yet to lose to the Icemen at the Amway Center, moving to 19-0-0-0 since the two teams began meeting in 2017… Langan (1 goal, 9 assists) and Luchuk (2 goals, 5 assists) both extended their point streaks to six games… By recording 59:45 of playing time on Friday, Orlando’s Windsor moved into third place on the franchise’s all-time minutes played by a goaltender list. His 2,573 minutes moved him past John Curry who amassed 2,543 minutes played during his time with the Solar Bears from 2012-2014.
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