NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – On any given night, a hockey goalie may be asked to play beyond expectations and steal a win for his team. If doing so were a crime, Orlando Solar Bears goalie Rob Madore should just be booked and convicted right now.
Goalie Rob Madore stole a victory for Orlando Saturday night with a brilliant 29-save performance (File photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
Saturday night at the North Charleston Coliseum, Madore stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced through regulation and overtime and all three tries in a shootout to carry the Solar Bears to a 2-1 win over the South Carolina Stingrays in front of an announced crowd of 3,578. Denver Manderson, playing in just his second game of the season, scored the deciding goal in the skills competition.
Madore, playing in his second game since returning from a call-up to the AHL Toronto Marlies, got Orlando (6-3-1-1, 14 points) into the shootout with a laundry list of huge saves throughout the game. He saved his best for last, denying Stingrays snipers Derek DeBlois and Andrew Rowe on a two-on-none break with less than two minutes left in the extra period.
The sequence began with a failed Solar Bears rush into the South Carolina (7-5-1-1, 16 points) end. The puck quickly headed the other way with Rowe and DeBlois trading passes all the way down the ice. Rowe tried to freeze Madore in the right-center of the crease with a fake before sliding a pass to DeBlois who fired a wrist shot. Madore stretched as far as he could from the spread eagle position, extending his catching glove to snare the puck. Rowe, realizing what Madore had done, buried his head in his hands in disbelief at the play.
The second meeting in as many days between the two South division rivals was an extension of Friday night’s defensive struggle. Orlando had a little better start than the host Stingrays, making rookie Vitek Vanecek work harder than he did in the first period the night before. Rookie Adam Reid had the best early chance but was foiled by the young Washington Capitals prospect.
South Carolina got on the board first for the second straight night late in the opening frame. It came at the 15:07 mark when Jared Staal fed the puck back to the point to Brendan Ellis who sent a shot toward the net. Somehow the puck avoided a bunch of traffic in front and eluded Madore’s leg pads for the defenseman’s second goal of the season.
It was the only shot that got past Madore, who made sure the Solar Bears stayed in the contest by scrambling to rob Brett Cameron late in the period on a rebound attempt during a Stingrays power play. The effort clearly sent a message that the netminder was going to be hard to beat the rest of the way.
Five minutes into the second period, tensions boiled over when a mele broke out after Orlando’s Erik Bradford took a shot in the face. Defenseman Mark Louis immediately challenged South Carolina’s Marcus Perrier, the player Louis felt was responsible and several others on both sides joined in. By the time order was restored, Louis had been given 17 minutes in penalties (10 coming for a game misconduct) while Perrier picked up seven minutes and Orlando’s Brad Richard and South Carolina’s Bobby Shea each earned a fighting major.
The Solar Bears offense, which had been slow in getting shots on Vanecek in the frame, got an opportunity on a power play a little past the midpoint of the period. It took just 18 seconds after DeBlois had gone off for orlando to capitalize when Manderson found Brett Findlay alone in the slot for a shot that screamed past the Stingrays netminder for Findlay’s seventh of the season and more importantly the tying score.
Later in the stanza, a four-on-four situation led to some more South Carolina pressure. Madore stood tall between the pipes, making a couple more big stops before defenseman Eric Baier mad a key block of a shot to keep the score knotted.
The teams came out in a defensive mode to start the third, each knowing that the next score could decide the game’s outcome. They traded punches that both Madore and Vanecek (22 saves) fended off. Each netminder made a huge save in the waning minutes – Madore on Rowe and Vanecek on Johnny McInnis – to keep the scoreboard even and send the contest into overtime.
In the three-on-three extra period, Madore was on point, making two early stops to keep the game going. Later, Vanecek faced Findlay on a breakaway and denied the speedy Orlando forward. That set the table for Madore’s thievery on DeBlois and the shootout to come.
Manderson led off the shootout by going five-hole on Vanecek to score what would be the game-winning goal. Madore stopped Joe Devin and Rowe on South Carolina’s first two attempts while Vanecek turned away Brady Vail and Eric Faille on the Solar Bears’ second and third shots. It came down to Austin Fyten who tried to beat Madore with a backhander but the Orlando goalie was not to be beaten on this night. He turned away the shot, giving the Solar Bears the extra point and a split of the weekend set.
Orlando’s penalty killing was perfect again, stopping South Carolina on three man advantage tries after turning away the Stingrays on four attempts on Friday.
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