GREENVILLE, SC – When Orlando Solar Bears rookie goalie Michael Lackey found out midweek that he was going to be the go-to guy between the pipes for the foreseeable future, there were two things that could have happened. Either he would be battling nerves like most first year players do or he could step up and show everyone that he could handle things and be the netminder his teammates and coaches needed him to be.
So far through three games, he is proving that the faith put in him is justified.
On the heels of posting his first professional shutout on Saturday, Lackey turned in a spectacular performance by stopping 38 of 39 shots – including 20 of 21 in the third period – to guide the Solar Bears (11-8-1-0) to a 4-1 victory over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (9-6-5-2) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 1,748 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville. The victory allowed Orlando to leapfrog over Greenville into third place in the Eastern conference.
Tyler Bird, Nikita Pavlychev, Jake Coughler and Aaron Luchuk each scored a goal but it was Lackey who was the main focus of the day. Following a tough performance where he was pulled out of the game Thursday night against the Swamp Rabbits, Lackey stopped 57 of 58 shots over two games in less than 24 hours, a save percentage of .983 while doubling his season win output to four (4-4-0-1).
Lackey started off Sunday’s contest where he left off Saturday night. He was perfect in the first period, stopping all nine Swamp Rabbits shots to run his shutout streak to 80 minutes of play. Greenville goalie John Lethemon almost matching Lackey by turning away five of six Solar Bears shots.
The one shot that beat Lethemon came with just under eight minutes remaining in the opening frame. Sent away on a two-on-one break, Bird cut toward the slot with a toe drag move that got Lethemon moving. As the goalie began to push to the other side, Bird fired back in the other direction, putting the puck inside the short side post for his fourth goal of the season and a 1-0 Orlando lead.
Less than two minutes into the middle frame, the Solar Bears doubled their lead. After Orlando won an offensive zone faceoff, Alexander Kuqali fired a shot toward the net. It was blocked but the loose puck fell into the slot where Pavlychev pounced on it. He fired away and the disc slipped under the arm of Lethemon and crawled its way over the goal line for the Tampa Bay Lightning prospect’s second goal of the year.
After having a potential third tally waived off for being kicked in, Orlando kept digging and did net one that counted. Tristin Langan created a turnover at the Greenville defensive blue line and advanced into the zone. As a teammate drew three defenders to the net front, Langan found space to drop a pass to Coughler who was training the rush. Cougler picked his spot and fired, beating Lethemon high to the glove side for his sixth goal of the season and a commanding 3-0 lead for the visitors heading to the final stanza.
The Swamp Rabbits played with desperation from the get go in the third but Lackey was dialed in, doing everything he could to keep Greenville off the board. He did so until the 9:40 mark of the period when Matt Bradley stole the puck in the Orlando end and fed Florida Panthers prospect Patrick Bajkov who whistled a shot past Lackey’s outstretched catching glove for his fourth lamp lighter of the season to cut the margin to 3-1.
That would be as close as the home team would get as Lackey got stronger with every save he made – and there were plenty – as time wound down. Luchuk finished off the scoring when Chris LeBlanc fed him the puck and buried it into an empty net with 1:22 to go.
Notes: Final shots were 39-23 in favor of Greenville… Neither team scored on the power play as Orlando went 0-for-2 while the Swamp Rabbits went 0-for-5… When the Solar Bears score three or more goals, they have a record of 11-1-1-0 this season, including a perfect 8-0-0-0 mark when they hit for four or more… Orlando is now 7-0-0-0 when Bird has at least one point in a game… Bird and Coughler each have a two-game goal streak while Johno May (1 goal, 2 assists) has a three-game point streak and Langan (4 assists), Kuqali (2 assists), LeBlanc (2 assists) and J.J. Piccinich (2 assists) have two-game assist streaks going… The Solar Bears return to the ice on Wednesday, February 17th when they head to Estero to battle the Florida Everblades. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.