ORLANDO, FLA – Following Thursday night’s win by the Orlando Solar Bears, goalie Garret Sparks said that he was looking forward to having the chance to avenge a November loss to the Fort Wayne Komets. Saturday night at the Amway Center he had that opportunity but much to the chagrin of the netminder and his teammates, the outcome was far from what the Solar Bears wanted.
Four different players lit the goal light and goalie Roman Will put on a show for the second straight night as the visiting Komets bested Sparks and the host Solar Bears by a score of 4-2. The loss, combined with South Carolina’s shutout win over Gwinnett, dropped Orlando into sixth place in the ECHL’s South division along with disappointing most of the 7,206 fans who celebrated Valentine’s Day with a hockey nightcap.
Sparks, who was looking for his sixth consecutive win, fell victim to the same circumstances that plagued fellow netminder Max Clermont on Friday – an efficient Fort Wayne offense and a Solar Bears defense that allowed too many odd-man rushes and open players who found juicy rebounds while they themselves again struggled to find the back of the net.
“You give up a two-on-one and they score, a breakaway and they score, a little miscommunication in the corner and the power play. They’re (Fort Wayne) an opportunistic team. They have guys who can finish,” Solar Bears head coach Vince Williams said. “You can’t give them opportunities like that [because] they’re going to capitalize. That was the tell-tale sign of the game.”
With Patrick Watling assigned back down to Orlando by the Toronto Maple Leafs/Marlies and the addition of former Solar Bear Tyler Murovich to the lineup, Williams hoped that the changes would make up for yet another night without Jake Cepis (upper body), Scott Tanski (lower body) and Blake Kessel (coach’s decision) dressed out. The coach was also banking on the return of Sparks to the blue paint spurring on the Solar Bears defense.
It took just 3:22 of playing time for the game to take an unexpected and ominous turn for the Solar Bears (24-18-3-0, 51 points). The sequence began with Orlando defenseman Carl Nielsen and Fort Wayne forward Shawn Szydlowski locking up in the neutral zone. Seconds later, Komets defenseman Matt Krug came from behind and tore Nielsen away from his teammate. Following the heavyweight battle which ended up with Krug on top and Nielsen missing his jersey, referee Zak Blazic assessed each with seven minutes in penalties then proceeded to eject Nielsen for not having his fight strap locked down. The call, which Williams declared “a bad call” because he felt that Krug was clearly a third man into a fight and was not ejected, left Orlando with five defensemen to finish the game.
Fort Wayne (33-12-1-2, 69 points) opened the scoring at the 8:32 mark thanks to a defensive lapse by the Solar Bears. It led to a two-on-one break where Szydlowski fed Mike Embach who blazed a shot past Sparks’ glove side shoulder. Then with just over a minute left until the intermission, Matthew Pistilli made a perfect stretch pass to Brett Perlini who broke in all alone and beat Sparks between the legs to double the score.
Will, who was Friday night’s number one star, turned back all 21 Orlando shots he faced in the opening period but the Solar Bears’ first opportunity of the middle frame found the back of the net. It came just 28 seconds in when a shot by Eric Baier clanged off the post and dropped into the crease where Brett Findlay was in the right place to poke the puck in.
Cutting the margin to 2-1 would prove to be as close as Orlando would get for the rest of the night. With Will making save after save, Fort Wayne’s offense played a patient game waiting for its opportunities and cashed in on them. Six minutes after Findlay’s score, the Komets moved back in front by two when Sparks made a pad save on a shot Kyle Thomas but the rebound came right to Matt Lowry who had an open net to fire into on the backside of the play. That goal, coming on Fort Wayne’s third shot of the stanza, gave the visitors three tallies on just ten shots in the game.
The final nail in Orlando’s coffin came on a Komets power play with just under a minute left in the period. Once again it was a second chance opportunity when Christian Ouellet converted the short rebound of a drive by Perlini with no defender near him.
Williams was quick to point out that not all of the goals could be blamed on Sparks having what many would consider a rough night.
“I wouldn’t say it was a rough night. You give up a two-on-one with a guy who could end up scoring thirty goals this year in Embach, a breakaway and then a little miscommunication with the puck where it could have been played out better,” Williams said. “Now we’re out of position and the rebound ends up kicking right out, right on the guy’s (Lowry) tape on the back door. Then the power play, he makes the first stop and then again he sticks that pad [out]. Maybe he should have gotten there a little quicker but he didn’t and it just goes in.”
Bryce Aneloski picked up his third goal of the season 13:27 into the final frame when he skated into a bomb of a shot that Will never saw until it was past him. It wasn’t enough as the Komets defense led by Will, who finished with 46 saves, slammed the door shut.
The Solar Bears have just two days to put Fort Wayne in the rear view mirror as the South Carolina Stingrays come to Orlando for key divisional matchups on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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