ORLANDO, FLA – When the Newfoundland Growlers arrived in Orlando, they were the best team in the entire ECHL. They proved that Friday night with a solid performance against the Solar Bears. When the two teams met again on Saturday, Orlando had one thing on its collective minds: get revenge and show the Growlers who has the bigger bite in Central Florida.
It took more than sixty minutes of play but when Chris LeBlanc scored his second goal of the game 1:40 into overtime, the Solar Bears (9-7-2-0) came away with a hard fought 6-5 victory over Newfoundland (14-6-1-0) in front of an announced crowd of 6,084 at the Amway Center.
LeBlanc was far from being the lone star in the game as journeyman swing player Curt Gogol scored the first two goals in his time with Orlando and Tampa assigned Jonne Tammela picked up a goal and an assist. But it was LeBlanc, the Massachusetts native, who stole the show and just maybe kick-started his 2018-19 season.
“I think I started slow but on an individual standpoint, I’m just trying to keep things simple and it’ll come from that,” LeBlanc,who entered the game with one goal and six points in 17 previous games, said. “I’m not really focused on the scoring. It’s more team oriented and doing the little things to help the team.”
LeBlanc’s winner came out of a standard issue scramble during the three-on-three extra session. With Michael Brodzinski and Brent Pedersen on the ice with him, the trio managed to work the puck into the middle of the slot area thanks to a carom off of Brodzinski’s skate in front of Growlers goalie Michael Garteig. Somehow the disc ended up on LeBlanc’s blade and with all sorts of traffic in front, he fired in the direction of the net. Garteig never saw the puck until it flashed past him just inside the post, setting off a pretty loud and wild celebration in the stands and on the ice.
After losing on Friday, Orlando Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky was hoping for a much better effort from his troops. He got it as the Solar Bears played a much more physical game but it took a while for the results to happen.
Newfoundland opened the scoring on a power play at 6:11 of the first period when some sharp tic-tac-toe passing led to Sam Babintsev setting up Giorgio Estephan for his third goal in two games and his 12th of the season.
Late in the period, with the fans itching for some offense, it was Gogol who provided it. First at the 16:53 mark, he did what all good forwards do and headed for the front of the net. He was in the right position for a redirect of a shot from the point by Rob Mann past Garteig for his first as a Solar Bear.
On his next shift, Pedersen got him the puck and he started to circle down below the goal line. Seeing a passing lane to the front and Mathieu Foget charging hard, Gogol sent it out where it hit Garteig’s arm and bounced in for his second goal in 1:59 seconds and a 2-1 Solar Bears lead.
“The first one we got it from low to high and I just went to the net. Mann had a good shot that I was lucky to get a stick on,” Gogol said when asked to describe his recollections of the two tallies. “The second one was a fluke. I was trying to get it to Foges [Foget] coming in back door. It went off the goalie and in. I’ll take ’em.”
The Growlers, who presently are being coached by former Solar Bears assistant coach John Snowden in place of Head Coach Ryane Clowe (medical absence), responded to the Orlando outburst with three of their own before the second period was halfway done. The first came at 4:12 when Babintsev fed a wide open Brady Ferguson in the slot for a shot that beat Solar Bears goalie Corbin Boes for Ferguson’s 10th.
The next two Newfoundland scores came in rapid succession on power plays. Playing with a man advantage and a delayed penalty coming on the Solar Bears, Ferguson set up Scott Pooley for his 6th of the season. The delayed penalty – called on Orlando’s Mike Monfredo – then went into effect and 54 seconds into the power play, Marcus Power beat Boes for his 5th and a 4-2 Growlers lead.
The Solar Bears responded quickly, taking just 42 seconds to cut the lead back to one. It came at the 10:46 mark when Tammela, playing in his third game since being assigned to Orlando, took the puck to the net and fired. Gatreig made the save but the rebound went right to Brady Shaw who buried it in the back of the net for his 10th.
Trailing by one heading into the third, Orlando put another quick blitz on the visitors from north of the border. Tammela tied the score 2:58 into the final frame, wrapping around the net and flipping a shot between the arm and body of Garteig for his first in a Solar Bears uniform. Eighteen seconds later, Matthew Spencer sent LeBlanc on a clean breakaway and he did the rest, cleanly beating the Growlers netminder for his first of the game and second of the year.
“Spence [Spencer] found me on a breakaway. It was a great pass by him,” LeBlanc said about the goal. “I stepped around the goalie and put it in.”
The Growlers were not about to be rattled and came back to even the score again a little over four minutes after LeBlanc’s tally. It came off the stick of Hudson Elynuik who charged around an Orlando defenseman and cut to the front of the net. Just as Boes started to follow him across, Elynuik slid the puck between Boes’ legs for his 2nd of the season.
Neither team could find the back of the net in the final 12:39 of regulation, sending the game to overtime where LeBlanc played the part of hero.
Berehowsky, who picked up his 101st win as the Solar Bears head coach, was very pleased with how his team responded after Friday night’s loss. He was also pleased with the efforts that Gogol and LeBlanc put in as part of the team first mentality.
“I thought both teams played a hard game. I thought we came out a lot better and we played more of our style of game than we did last night,” Berehowsky said. “I thought both [Gogol and LeBlanc] played well. They’re big parts of our team and we brought them in for a reason. Both of them played well and their roles are huge for our team.”
Orlando is now off until next Saturday with the Norfolk Admirals visit the Amway Center. It will be the first ever Alzheimer’s Awareness Night put on by the Solar Bears. The team will wear special jerseys that will be auctioned off with proceeds going to the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center. For Gogol, it is something that is close to his heart and he is excited that the Solar Bears are doing it.
“That’s huge for Alzheimer’s. That’s huge for research.That’s huge for awareness,” Gogol said. “It’s an awful disease. I lost my grandmother to it and it does need the awareness. I think it’s great what we’re doing here, being one of the first teams to have an Alzheimer’s night. I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it and be involved in the community and do whatever I can from where I’m at to help out with the disease [awareness] and the foundation we’re working with.”
Notes: Final shots for the game were 38-30 in favor of Orlando… The Growlers went 3-for-5 on the power play in the contest while the Solar Bears were 0-for-5… The win was Orlando’s third in overtime this season… The Solar Bears finished the month of November with a 5-4-2-0 record… Tammela led Orlando with seven shots on net.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.