INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The last time the Orlando Solar Bears paid a visit to the Indiana Farmers Coliseum was in January of 2016 when T.J. Foster and Johnny McInnis scored goals and Ryan Massa made 38 saves in a shutout of the host Indy Fuel. Friday night, with playoff positioning at stake, the Solar Bears power play made sure that the returning visitors from Central Florida came away with the all important two points.
J.J. Piccinich’s man advantage goal with 2:19 left in regulation proved to be the difference as Orlando (27-18-4-1) edged Indy (27-18-4-0) by a final of 4-3 in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 1,587. Michael Joly scored in his first game after being traded to the Solar Bears earlier in the week and Aaron Luchuk notched his team-leading 20th goal of the season for the victors.
Piccinich’s tally, his third game-winner of the year and sixth during his time in Orlando, was a perfectly designed play. He sent the puck up the half boards for Joe Garreffa who was cycling from high to low. Garreffa sent it back to Mark Auk at the point who fired on net. Piccinich, who had headed toward the slot area after his initial pass, was at the hashmarks on the faceoff circle to Indy goalie Dan Bakala’s right and redirected the aerial disc past the goalie. After video review by the game officials, the play stood as good, putting the Solar Bears ahead for good.
Coming into the game, the two teams were going in opposite directions. The Solar Bears were riding a 6-3-1-0 streak in their previous ten games. On the other side, the Fuel were the polar opposite, posting a 3-6-1-0 mark through the same period. Add in the long list of missing players from the Indy lndy lineup and Orlando having just two rookie goalies available, how the contest would turn out was anyone’s guess.
The Solar Bears and Fuel came out firing at will, creating a combined 32 shots (17 for Orlando) in the first period. The visitors scored first when off of a central ice faceoff that Kyle Topping was able to push ahead, Joly raced to the loose puck and gained control. He then used his speed to surge into the Indy end and fired a wrist shot past the stick side of Bakala for his ninth goal of the season and first in a Solar Bears uniform.
Just under six minutes later, Orlando’s Tristin Langan forced an offensive zone turnover. Langan skated toward the goal line and just as he started to cross it, fired the puck toward the crease where it banked off of Bakala and in for Langan’s 18th of the year and a 2-0 Solar Bears lead.
Indy bit back, using a late frame power play, to trim the margin. Orlando failed on a clearing attempt with the puck landing on the stick blade of Matt Marcinew. Marcinew fired a shot that Solar Bears goalie Michael Lackey stopped but Michael Pelech was there to jam the rebound bewteen the netminder’s legs and in for his eighth goal of the season.
The Fuel’s man advantage units struck again early in the middle frame to pull the home team even. As the power play was in its final seconds, some tic-tac-toe passing freed up Nic Pierog for a shot from the slot that Lackey fended off. The rebound skidded off to the back side of the play where Terry Broadhurst beat an Orlando defender and poked the puck across the line for his second of the season and a 2-2 tie 3:13 into the stanza.
The score stayed knotted until the 13:28 mark when Luchuk, the reigning ECHL Player of the Week from last week, stepped in. He went to the front of the net and while in amongst a lot of traffic, tipped a shot from Auk into the cage for his 20th of the year.
Orlando’s 3-2 lead lasted until the final minute of play in the second period when Indy got a redirect of its own. Diego Cuglietta got the puck back to Ryan Zuhlsdorf at the point for a shot on net. Before it got to Lackey, Nick Hutchison got his stick on the flying puck and sent if past Lackey for his fourth of the year and a 3-3 tie heading to the final twenty minutes.
For much of the third frame, Lackey (29 saves) and Bakala (25 saves) stole the show. The pair of netminders seemed determined to push the game beyond sixty minutes of playing time. They both made some clutch saves to keep the scoreboard even as time continued to tick away.
With a little over four minutes remaining in regulation, Indy was tagged with its third penalty of the period, giving Orlando its third straight chance to take the lead for good. It took until the final 14 seconds of the man advantage when Piccinich was in the right place at the right time to put the Solar Bears back in front.
Orlando’s defense rallied around its goalie, sealing off the front of the net and doing what it had to do to protect Lackey and the lead. In the dying seconds, Piccinich was able to poke the puck into the neutral zone where Topping tracked it down and fired into an empty net with one second left for his eighth goal and closed out the win.
With the victory, Orlando secured points number 58 and 59 while Indy remained at 58. However, since points (or winning) percentage will decide who makes the playoffs, the Solar Bears remained in third place in the standings with a percentage of .590 to the Fuel’s .592 percentage.
The two teams will meet for game two of the three-game weekend set Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. in Indy.
Notes: Final shots were 32-30 in favor of Indy… Orlando finished 1-for-5 on the power play while Indy was 2-for-4… Indy’s Pelech recorded a secondary assist on Broadhurst’s second period score, giving him 390 career ECHL assists. It tied him with Darryl Noren and John Spoltore for third on the all-time ECHL list for most career helpers… Auk (6 games), Garreffa (5 games) and Piccinich (4 games) all extended their personal scoring streaks.
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