PORTLAND, ME – With the ECHL’s All-Star Game, the ceremonial halfway point in the regular season, the Orlando Solar Bears headed north to snowy Portland, Maine for a three-game set against the Maine Mariners. The last time they visited “the Lobster State” (one of the state’s nicknames) was in November of 2018 and the result was not a very good one.
Friday night at the Cross Insurance Arena, the boys from Central Florida got off to a much better start and thanks to two of their stars, the Solar Bears no longer have a zero in the win column there.
Led by Tristin Langan’s second professional hat trick and four-point night along with five points (goal, 4 assists) from Tyler Bird, Orlando (19-13-2-0) stormed their way to a 6-2 victory over Maine (13-14-3-1) in front of an announced crowd of 2,656. The victory was the second in two meetings against the Mariners – the other coming back in November in the City Beautiful – this season.
The win was also a high-water mark for the Solar Bears as the contest was their fifth straight victory on the road, a place where they struggled for success early in the season.
Coming off of a regulation loss and an overtime loss before the break, Orlando wanted to get off on the right skate in the opening period. That wish came to pass as the Solar Bears dropped three goals in just under eight minutes in the back half of the frame.
Langan opened the scoring at the 11:00 mark. He and linemates Bird and Jackson Keane did some impressive forechecking deep in the Maine defensive zone. Their efforts created a loose puck that Keane controlled off of the halfboards and sent low to Bird at the goal line. Bird then found Langan in the slot where he rifled a shot high to the blocker side of Mariners netminder Kyle Keyser and in for his fifth goal of the season.
Seven minutes and change later, Langan helped teammate Andrew McLean with keeping the puck in the offensive zone. It led to McLean snapping a shot from the point that got through some traffic and into the back of the cage for his second of the season. Then with sixty-five seconds left in the period and Orlando on a power play, Langan took a cross-ice feed from Hunter Fejes and from the top of the faceoff circle to Keyser’s left drilled a snap shot to the far side for his second of the night and sixth of the 2021-22 campaign.
For the most part, the middle stanza featured the goalies as Keyser and Orlando’s Brad Barone went nearly save for save. They combined to turn away 21 of the 22 total shots put on net with both dropping a couple of key stops,one of which was turned in by Barone who stoned Maine’s Ian McKinnon on a short-handed breakaway with a minute left in the period.
The only shot that lit the goal light in the frame came off the stick of McKinnon 6:39 in. Jake Bricknell combined with Connor Doherty to force a turnover in center ice. Doherty carried the puck into the Solar Bears end and slid a pass ahead to McKinnon who had cut in a couple of strides ahead in the slot. McKinnon wasted little time in unleashing a wicked shot that zipped past Barone’s glove hand for his first since joining the Mariners roster a half dozen games ago.
Less than five minutes into the third, the Mariners clawed within a goal thanks to a man advantage. With Orlando’s McLean in the penalty box for delay of game, Zach Malatesta worked the puck from the point to Pascal Laberge just inside the circle to Barone’s right. With Cam Askew providing a screen, Laberge lasered a shot past the Solar Bears netminder for his 14th goal of the season, making it a 3-2 game.
That was as close as Maine got as the Solar Bears struck for three unanswered tallies in the back half of the period. First at 9:18, rookie Jake Transit cleaned up the rebound of a shot from the wing by Bird for his third of the season. Then at 15:14, Langan completed his hat trick when he redirected a point shot by Dmitry Semykin for his seventh to restore Orlando’s three goal lead at 5-2.
In the final minute, Bird capped off his career night when he sailed a shot from the top of the circle in his own end into the empty Maine cage for his eighth of the year. The goal came during the Solar Bears fourth penalty kill of the evening for the team’s eighth shorty.
Barone finished the night with 22 saves on 24 shots faced to pick up his 12th win of the season. At the other end, Keyser turned away 26 of 31 shots thrown his way in suffering the loss.
The two teams will meet again Saturday night starting at 6:05 p.m. as the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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