Orlando goalie Rob Madore (29, left) and defenseman Zach Bell defend against Greenville’s Breton Cameron Thursday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
ORLANDO, FLA – After failing to hold a two goal lead, the Orlando Solar Bears were less than ten seconds away from a second chance in overtime. As it turned out, that way too much time for the hockey gods to turn their backs one more time.
Jordan Knackstedt scored two goals, including the game winner with 3.3 seconds left in regulation, while Scott Fleming netted two of his own as the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (22-18-6-0, 50 points) edged the Solar Bears (17-19-2-4, 40 points) 6-5 at the Amway Center Thursday night. The loss dropped Orlando to 0-3-0-1 in the first four games of a month-long stretch of home games.
Knackstedt’s winner was a study in what went wrong for Orlando. The Solar Bears had the puck in their defensive zone and seemed ready to head to overtime. In the blink of an eye, a turnover led to Knackstedt alone in the slot for a laser shot that beat Orlando goalie Rob Madore high to the stick side.
There were plenty of things that went right for the home team but it was the final error that was the buzz after the contest.
“The finish just can’t happen. You have a couple of seconds left and we have the puck on our stick in the corner,” Orlando head coach Anthony Noreen lamented. “We’ve got to be more mature than that and eat the puck.”
The loss overshadowed what was one of the Solar Bears best offensive nights in some time. Four different players – Erik Bradford, Rylan Schwartz, Matt Rupert and Eric Faille – all posted a goal and two assists.
Noreen had been preaching to his team about getting off to a good start but once again the Solar Bears went down early. It took the Swamp Rabbits just 1:20 to open the scoring when Michael St. Croix fed Fleming in the slot for a one-timer that whistled past Madore.
The hole got even deeper when Troy Donnay, using a perfect screen by Ryan Rashid, unleashed a drive from the point that lit the goal light at the 8:57 mark. For Donnay, it was his first goal of the season.
Being outplayed and outscored, the Solar Bears got their first boost of the night from a familiar source: penalty killing. With less than a minute to go on a Greenville power play, Schwartz and Faille broke out on an odd-man rush. Using Faille as a decoy, Schwartz waited before picking a spot on the stick side of Swamp Rabbits goalie Allen York for his tenth goal of the season.
As the teams lined up for the start of the second period, Orlando defenseman Zach Bell sensed the need for a second spark. He took the bull by the horns and right off the draw challenged Greenville’s Kodie Curran to a fight. Bell appeared to get the better of the battle but more importantly, it set the tone for the entire frame.
“That’s kind of something I’ve done throughout my career. We came out a little flat there in the first so I kind of wanted to give the guys a little buzz,” Bell said.
Bell did indeed light the fuse on the Solar Bears effort. It paid off when Faille made a brilliant tip of a shot by Eric Baier to beat York at the 5:28 mark for his team-leading 18th goal. Fifty-seven seconds later, Bradford slid a pass from below the goal line to the slot where Rupert banged home his eighth of the year to put Orlando in front.
The lead lasted just less than four minutes. Midway through the stanza, Knackstedt chased down the rebound of a shot by Curran that skidded to the corner. Without thinking, Knackstedt threw the puck at the net where it hit Madore’s skate and bounced in for the Swamp Rabbits forward’s eighth tally.
Not ready to give in, the Solar Bears pushed back and found the back of the net not once but twice before the period ended. The first came when Adam Reid put the puck on the stick of Bradford who beat York for his fourth goal of the season.
Less than a minute later, Brady Vail took the puck down low and found teammate Nicklas Lindberg alone in front. Lindberg wasted no time after taking the pass as he ripped a shot into the back of the net for his second score since arriving in Orlando and a two goal lead for his team.
Playing with a lead had been tough for Orlando of late and again the issue came up in the third period. An early penalty led to a Swamp Rabbits power play and the visitors cashed in. Rashid worked the puck back to the blueline where Charlie Dodero took advantage of traffic in front of Madore to blast a shot home for his first goal of the season.
Just under two minutes later, Curran fed Fleming in the low slot for a shot that hit pay dirt in the back of the net. Fleming’s thirteenth score knotted the score at five with three-quarters of the final frame still left.
The teams played most of the final sixteen minutes evenly, going back and forth with chances. Madore (36 saves) and York (25 saves) seemed destined to settle their battle in overtime until the final seconds when Knackstedt played the hero.
Noreen said that the mood in the locker room was one of being upset for both losing the lead and the way in which the game itself was lost.
“It’s a little bit of a surreal thing when something like that happens. You feel like you’ve got everything going, you’re okay. You’ve calmed the mood on the bench when they fight back in it to make it five to five,” he said. “I thought from the point it was five-five, did we give up some chances? Yes but I thought we generated some too. I thought we were pretty even keeled on the bench. You give up one late like that in a game you knew you needed pretty badly [and] I think it is human nature to feel down about it. That happens [when] you want to win the hockey game.”
The two teams will have Friday off before meeting again Saturday night in Orlando.
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