ORLANDO, FLA – With the potential of facing a first-ever playoff series, the Orlando Solar Bears and Jacksonville Icemen have been looking to send messages to the other through victories on the ice. Going into Thursday night’s tilt at the Amway Center, the Solar Bears were carrying a three-game winning streak against their in-state rivals, all of them coming at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in the River City.
After the ice shavings settled on Thursday, the Icemen now have a modest winning streak of their own on the downtown ice sheet in the City Beautiful.
Jacksonville netminder Francois Brassard made 24 saves to record his first ever ECHL shutout as the Icemen (31-18-2-2) collected a 3-0 win over the host Solar Bears (29-23-4-0) in front of an announced crowd of 4,492. It was the second straight win for the Icemen at the Amway, following up on a 3-2 victory in Orlando on February 17th.
Former Solar Bear Pavel Vorobei scored the eventual game-winning goal on a power play late in the second period before Rushen Jaswal and Derek Lodermeier salted the result away with goals in the final frame.
The whitewashing was the fifth time Orlando had it happen to them this season and the third time it had occurred on home ice. Goalie Brad Barone, making his 21st straight start between the pipes for the Solar Bears, stopped 31 of 34 Icemen shots in suffering a very tough luck loss.
The first period of Thursday’s game, given the load of penalty minutes and animosity from Wednesday, was tame. Only one minor penalty was whistled in the frame and that did not come until the back half of the stanza. Orlando was on the offensive from the get go, posting an 11-3 shot advantage in the first eleven minutes of play before Jacksonville got its skates under them. Barone had arguably the best save of the frame when during the lone Solar Bears power play of the period, he denied the Icemen’s Craig Martin on a clean breakaway. When the horn sounded ending the period, neither side had put a dent in the 0-0 score that the game started off with.
Following a second unsuccessful Orlando man advantage eight minutes into the second, Jacksonville got its first power play of the evening. It took nearly all of the two minutes but the Icemen did finally change the scoreboard. Sean Giles threaded a pass back to the point to Vorobei who proceeded to fire at the Solar Bears net. The puck managed to sneak its way between the legs of Barone for Vorobei’s sixth goal of the season and third power play tally, all of them coming since joining the Jacksonville roster.
Later in the frame, Jacksonville’s Zach Berzolla put a hard hit on Orlando’s Odeen Tufto, nearly touching off a resumption of Wednesday’s bad blood. The Solar Bears’ Tristin Langan immediately challenged Berzolla as the two combatants squared off in a wrestling match that led to a double minor for roughing on Langan and a single minor on Berzolla. Things settled down after that and the Icemen failed to add to their lead.
Early in the third, Jacksonville did succeed in extending its lead. At the 3:45 mark, Jake Elmer found a shooting lane and sent the puck toward the cage. Jaswal got himself in position in front and redirected Elmer’s shot into the back of the net for his second of the season.
Looking to get back to a one-goal deficit, the Solar Bears were given their third man advantage of the night but again could not beat Brassard. Half a minute after the Orlando power play ended, the Icemen put the game away. Vladislav Mikhalchuk got the puck to Lodermeier who took a shot on net. It got through Barone’s legs, hit the post and slid across the goal line, giving Lodermeier his 12th goal of the year and his team a commanding 3-0 lead.
There was still more than half the frame left to play and when a fourth power play came Orlando’s way at 11:35, there was still hope. Unfortunately the hockey gods were not generous as Tufto had a shot clank off the post and bounce away in a true indicator of how the night was for the home team.
Over the final six minutes and fourteen seconds of play, Orlando registered just one shot on Brassard. Helped by a late power play, the Icemen kept the pressure on Barone by firing seven shots on him on the way to a 15-6 shots advantage in the final twenty minutes.
Both teams will get a rare Friday night off before the Solar Bears travel to Estero to take on the Florida Everblades on Saturday while the Icemen host the Greenville Swamp Rabbits the same night. Both games drop the puck at 7 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 34-24 in favor of Jacksonville… The Icemen went 1-for-3 on the power play while the Solar Bears were 0-for-4… Orlando now leads the season series 7-5 with two more meetings remaining, both in April… Earlier in the day, Orlando’s Shawn Element was recalled to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. At the same time, goalie Amir Miftakhov was reassigned from the Crunch to the Solar Bears.
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