ORLANDO, FLA – When the Orlando Solar Bears finished the first period of their home game against the Utah Grizzlies on Thursday night, they were holding onto a 3-0 lead. Given the fact that the Grizzlies were coming off of a loss to the Florida Everblades on Wednesday night, the top team in the ECHL’s Mountain division looked tired and beaten.
Fast forward almost forty minutes of playing time and one might have thought it was the Solar Bears who were in trouble, that is until Tristin Langan saved the day.
Langan scored 3:06 into overtime to power the Solar Bears (20-15-2-0) to a 4-3 win over the Grizzlies (25-13-2-1) in front of an announced crowd of 7,678 at the Amway Center. Dylan Fitze scored twice and Hunter Fejes once for Orlando in its big opening stanza. Utah’s Brian Bowen matched Fitze with a pair of tallies, including the game-tying score with 41 seconds remaining in regulation.
Langan’s extra time goal, his third career overtime winner, was a pretty play that three-on-three play can privide. Solar Bears goalie Brad Barone, who made 24 saves to earn his 13th victory, ignited the play with a long outlet pass into center ice to defenseman Luke McInnis. As McInnis carried into the Utah end, teammate Tyler Bird joined him for a two-on-one rush that quickly became a two-on-two break. As the four players veered to the right hand side of Grizzlies netminder Peyton Jones’ right, Langan came up as the trailer with nothing but open ice down the slot. Langan took a feed from McInnis and after a couple of strides, buried a shot between Jones’ legs for his eighth goal of the season to secure the win.
Fueled by the appearance of the crew from the very popular “Spittin Chiclets” podcast featuring NHL on TNT analyst (and former NHLer) Paul Bissonnette along with former NHLer Ryan Whitney and producer Mike Grinnell, the large midweek crowd was excited from the start and the Solar Bears put on a show.
The show started at the 8:51 mark. It started with a feed by Fabrizio Ricci to captain Kevin Lohan at the point. Lohan fired away and just before the puck got to Jones, Fitze got his stickblade on it. The puck caromed in the direction of Luke Boka who appeared to put it in the net. Upon review later, it was ruled that Fitze’s redirection hit a Utah player and went in, giving Fitze his first of the night and sixth of the season.
The Solar Bears and their specialty “Pink Whitney” jerseys (part of the deal with Spittin Chiclets) doubled the lead just under four minutes later. Off of an offensive zone faceoff win, the puck went back to Michael Brodzinski at the blue line.Brodzinski’s point shot hit off of Odeen Tufto – who was assigned back to Orlando by Tampa Thursday – to Fejes who deposited the biscuit in the cage for his seventh tally since returning to the Solar Bears in December.
Fitze then put a cap on the opening frame scoring bonanza when he capitalized on a Utah miscue and ripped a wrist shot past Jones for his second of the contest and seventh of the season at 16:46. When the buzzer went ending the period, the Solar Bears had 11 shots on net and three goals, a darn good shooting percentage in anyone’s book.
The Grizzlies, who last met Orlando in November of 2019 (a pair of 2-1 Utah wins both in overtime out in West Valley City), dug in their skate blades and started their comeback in the middle frame. At the 12:52 mark of the stanza, Gehrett Sargis took the puck off an offenzive zone faceoff and slid a pass to Andrew Nielsen at the point. Quinn Ryan went to the top of the crease and directed Nielsen’s drive past Barone for his 10th goal of the 2021-22 campaign.
A minute later, Orlando’s Dmitry Semykin took a holding penalty, putting Utah ona power play. The Grizzlies cashed in when a shot by Nielsen pinballed in the low slot before Christian Simeone got it under control. He saw Bowen open a handful of feet away and made a pass to his teammate who threaded the needle for his 13th tally of the season to make it a 3-2 game.
Orlando had a huge opportunity to regain control of things early in the final frame. The Grizzlies, who had not been called for a penalty through the first two periods, were hit for three successive infractions between the 1:31 and 5:13 points of play. Two of the calls overlapped, giving the home team 25 seconds of a five-on-three advantage. Unfortunately for the Solar Bears, they mustered a grand total of just four shots on Jones including only one during the two-man-up time.
A fourth man advantage with just under five minutes left in regulation gave the Solar Bears one more chance to get an insurance marker but Utah’s penalty killers did their job, keeping the margin at one goal.
In the final minute of regulation with Jones (who made 30 saves in the contest) pulled for an extra attacker, the visitors came up with the goal that allowed them to extend play. With just over 41 ticks to go, Bowen was again in the right place to deflect a shot from the top of the faceoff circle to Barone’s right by Luke Martin for his second of the night and 14th of the year.
Bowen’s tally became the precursor to Langan’s heroics in the extra period as Orlando skated off with the win, the team’s third overtime win at home this season.
After a couple of days off due to scheduling at the Amway Center, the teams will meet for one last time this season on Monday night at 7 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 34-27 in favor of Orlando… The Grizzlies went 1-for-2 on the power play while the Solar Bears finished 0-for-4, their third consecutive game without a man advantage score… Orlando defenseman Chad Duchesne played in his 300th career professional game Thursday night… Langan’s OT score tied him with Mickey Lang for most extra time goals in team history. It was also his 49th career goal as a Solar Bear, putting him two tallies behind Eric Faille for second most in team history… There were other celebrities besides the Spittin Chiclets crew on Thursday. WWE wrestlers Alexa Bliss (along with fiance singer Ryan Cabrera), Nia Jax and Mojo Rawley had their faces splashed on the Amway Center jumbotron during a stoppage in play.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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