NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – With third place a win away, the Orlando Solar Bears entered Sunday’s final game before the ECHL All-Star break hungry for a second straight win against the South Carolina Stingrays. They were also still miffed at losing defenseman Myles McGurty to a high hit by Stingrays star Andrew Cherniwchan, wanting a chance for some payback.
Unfortunately, Orlando failed to get any kind of satisfaction.
Former NHLer Josh Gratton scored two goals in the final 3:20 of regulation to lift the host Stingrays (22-17-2-0) to a 5-3 victory over the Solar Bears (20-17-3-0) in front of an announced crowd of 3,208 at the North Charleston Coliseum. Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Jonne Tammela scored two goals and added an assist to post back-to-back three point games for Orlando in a losing cause.
After Saturday night’s meeting between the two teams that saw McGurty bloodied and groggy after the hit by Cherniwchan, Sunday began with less than thrilling news for the visiting Solar Bears. First off, McGurty was not available to play which put Carter Struthers in the lineup as the lone healthy blueliner left for head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky to give Orlando six defensemen. Then it was learned that Cherniwchan, who was given a match penalty and a game misconduct for the hit, would not be suspended for the afternoon game while McGurty was out. When forward Mitch Hults was scratched after warmups, it left the Solar Bears with just nine forwards dressed.
The first period was a point-counterpoint session which although it ended 2-2 was a great effort by the goaltenders. South Carolina’s Angus Redmond,who was chased by the Solar Bears early in the second period on Saturday, rebounded fourteen saves including a pair in the opening two minutes when he robbed Dylan Fitze and Corey Kalk from point blank range. Orlando’s Corbin Boes made eight saves on the ten shots he faced including taking a sure goal away from Stingrays sniper Grant Besse.
Besse bested Boes at the 4:58 mark of the frame to open the scoring. While killing a penalty, He took a pass from Cherniwchan and sped into the Solar Bears end before cutting to the net and sliding a backhander under Boes for his 15th goal of the season and scores in back-to-back contests.
Orlando answered back a little over three minutes later. It started with Colby McAuley winning an offensive zone faceoff and poking the puck to Alex Schoenborn. Schoenborn pushed the disc into the slot area where Tammela rifled it home for his 10th of the year and second in two games.
The Stingrays went back in front at the 11:06 mark when defenseman Kevin McKernan was in the right place at the right time. He was in position to redirect a shot by teammate Matt Pohlkamp past the Solar Bears netminder for his 6th of the season. Orlando again had an answer when Tammela set up Mathieu Foget for a short-handed goal two minutes later. The Finnish forward stole the puck from a South Carolina player, creating a two-on-none with Foget. Tammela was able to draw Redmond to his side before passing the puck to Foget who buried it in the open side of the net for his 12th of the year and 11th with Orlando.
The netminders went toe-to-toe as the second period started with Boes and Redmond matching save for save. That ended a little bit past the midway point of the stanza when the home team took its third lead of the game. Playing on a power play, Cherniwchan sent a feed to Tim Davison at the point. Davison let fire with a seeing-eye wrist shot that beat a screened Boes for the blueliner’s 3rd of the year to make it 3-2.
Less than a minute later, the Solar Bears’ Tammela went to work and evened the scoreboard for a third time. A defensive zone turnover by the Stingrays led to Chris LeBlanc getting the puck on his stick. LeBlanc threaded a pass between the skates of a defender to Tammela who netted his second of the game and 11th of the season.
South Carolina had a great opportunity early in the third period when Jordan Samuels-Thomas, who was assigned to the Stingrays by the Hershey Bears Sunday morning, was awarded a penalty shot. Samuels-Thomas drove into the right circle and fired away but Boes used his stick to fend off the chance.
After some back-and-forth play, Gratton was in the right place at the right time to redirect a shot by Tad Kozun for his first score as a member of the Stingrays at the 16:40 mark. Gratton’s tip snuck its way over Boes’s pad and trickled in to give the home team the lead for good.
Orlando’s frustrations began to surface less than a minute later when Fitze drove a Stingrays player into the boards, drawing a five-minute boarding major and a game misconduct. On the ensuing power play, Foget had an opportunity to tie the game again but Redmond (39 saves) denied the try.
With 36.4 seconds left, Cherniwchan drew the ire of Solar Bears defenseman Cody Donaghey, who obviously was still seething over the events of the night before. He cross-checked Cherniwchan, drawing a major penalty and a game misconduct, joining Fitze in the locker room.It created a five-on-three power play that allowed Gratton to net his second of the period with 16 seconds to go to close the scoring.
The victory allowed the Stingrays to increase its lead over the Solar Bears for third place in the ECHL’s South division to three points. Orlando is off until Saturday when it travels to visit the Atlanta Gladiators while South Carolina returns to action next Sunday on the road in Greenville.
Notes: Final shots were 42-32 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-2 with the man advantage while the Stingrays were successful twice in seven attempts with the power play… Tammela led the Solar Bears with three goals and three assists during the week…Orlando’s Boes stopped 27 of 32 shots in a losing effort… With his assist on Tammela’s first tally, McAuley extended his point streak to four games (2 goals, 3 assists)… South Carolina upped its record to 6-4 this year against the Solar Bears, guaranteeing a win in the season series between the two teams with one game left.
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