ORLANDO, FLA – Being away from home for almost three weeks, the Orlando Solar Bears really needed their own ice and fans to give them a boost heading into the holiday break. They would also need a big performance from goalie Ryan Massa if they were going to beat the Florida Everblades and regain a share of first place in the South division.
Orlando goalie Ryan Massa, right, set a new team record for saves in a game Thursday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Just like Santa Claus, Massa delivered right on time Thursday night.
The second year goalie out of the University of Nebraska-Omaha put on a show, setting a new ECHL franchise record with 57 saves as the Solar Bears (17-9-3-0, 37 points) got past the Everblades (17-6-1-2, 37 points) 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 6,047 at the Amway Center. Massa surpassed the previous record of 53 set by Garret Sparks in a 10-3 win over Evansville on March 14, 2015.
Forward Joe Perry netted a pair of goals, his 16th and 17th of the season, to get Orlando off on the right skate against its in-state rival but it was Massa who literally stole the show.
“It was a great way to get our team positioned heading into the holiday break,” Massa said after his record-setting performance. “It’s a big rival across the hall there. [It was] a hard fought game. The boys did well and we played the right way to come out on top at the end.”
Coming off a 5-2 loss in Estero Wednesday night, the Solar Bears wanted badly to turn the tables on their Sunshine Cup series foe. Had it not been for Massa, the outcome might very well have been decidedly different. The Littleton, Colorado native kept Orlando in the game early on, piling up ten saves before the first period was twelve minutes old.
Realizing that its netminder was “in the zone”, Orlando started to find its offense in the back half of the frame. The efforts of the Solar Bears finally bore fruit at the 14:03 mark when rookie Chase Witala got control of the puck behind the Florida net and sent a pass out to Perry who rifled a shot past the glove of Everblades goalie Anthony Peters.
Perry, who has been rocking the worlds of goalies across the ECHL so far this year, notched his second of the night 1:48 into the middle frame. Brett Findlay made the whole thing possible by chasing down the puck in the Florida defensive end and circling behind the net. As he emerged to Peters’ left side, Findlay put the disc on Perry’s stick blade. All Perry had to do was tuck it into the open side of the net.
“Both of them were really great plays by my teammates,” Perry said.
The Solar Bears extended their lead to three at the 8:11 mark of the stanza. Patrick Watling drove with the puck into the Everblades end. As the defense backed off,Watling left a perfect drop pass for defenseman Nik Brouillard who had jumped up into the rush. Brouillard took a stride or two into the top of the slot and fired a wrister that hit a skate and went between the legs of Peters for the rookie defender’s fourth goal of the season.
Leftover hostilities from Wednesday’s affair boiled over not too long later. It started along the boards behind the Florida net and gradually filtered in front of the cage. The Everblades’ Dalton Smith and the Solar Bears’ Chris Bradley eventually dropped the gloves and went at it while Orlando’s Tony Cameranesi and Florida’s Curt Gogol and John McCarron got involved. For his troubles, McCarron was tossed for physical abuse of an official.
A late period goalie interference call against Cameranesi gave the Everblades a chance to get on the board before the second intermission and they did just that. It came when Brendan O’Donnell redirected a pass from Zack Kamrass to Brant Harris who lifted a shot over Massa’s left shoulder for his 10th goal of the year.
Florida came out flying in the final frame, testing Massa with a barrage of shots. One of the Orlando netminder’s stops came early on when he stretched as far as he could with his right leg to deny former Solar Bear Adam Brace. The Everblades amassed fifteen shots in the first thirteen minutes of the period.
As they did in the second, the Everblades got a late chance on the power play in the third and cashed in. Once again it was Harris who was johnny on the spot to poke a loose puck in the crease across the goal line for his second of the game and 11th of the season. It would be as close as the visitors got as Eric Faille secured the win with an empty net tally, his 13th of the year, off a pass from Watling.
Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky said that the difference between Wednesday’s loss and Thursday’s victory was a matter of keeping things simple and learning from video study.
“We watched some video today before the game and we saw all the turnovers they (Orlando players) were making. We don’t want to play that way. We want to play below the tops of their [faceoff] circles. We want to transition fast,” Berehowsky said. “I’ll give these guys a lot of credit. They saw the video and they adjusted. Like I said I’m really proud of these guys and I hope the city is as well.”
Berehowsky, Perry and Massa all said that their “wish” for Christmas is that everyone gets some rest and recharges their batteries because there is still plenty of work to be done. Of course, the goalie probably put it the best.
“[My wish would be] that we all get healthy, well rested, enjoy our time away from the rink and seeing pucks and putting the skates on,” Massa said. “And come back refreshed [and] foaming at the mouth to not be denied [during] the second half of the year.”
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