INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Orlando Solar Bears goalie Ryan Massa is listed on the team roster as being an even six feet tall. These days that is not big by standards but will and heart cannot be measured in feet and inches.
Saturday night at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, Massa played like he was The a Great Wall, stopping 38 shots as the Solar Bears (17-15-2-3, 39 points) shut out the Indy Fuel 2-0. It was the second donut posted by the rookie goalie this season, the other coming early last month against Atlanta.
T.J. Foster picked up his ECHL Orlando rookie record fifth game-winning goal of the season – four of them coming in the team’s last five wins.
Both the Solar Bears and the Fuel (17-20-2-0, 36 points) entered the game following losses on Friday night. With a large crowd in the building for Chicago Blackhawks Night (Indy’s NHL affiliate was represented by Hall of Fame legend Bobby Hull among others), the Fuel had added incentive to post a win.
The first period was a see-saw battle as the teams went back and forth in what quickly became a grudge match. Gloves were dropped twice before the frame was ten minutes old as first Orlando’s Zach Bell and Indy’s Sam Jardine fought before the Solar Bears’ Mark Louis and the Fuel’s Patrick Koudys duked it out.
With leading scorer Eric Faille having been recalled by Orlando’s AHL affiliate in Toronto, head coach Anthony Noreen moved Denver Manderson up to the top line with Foster and Rylan Schwartz. As it worked out, Foster did not need any help on his goal 12:42 into the opening stanza.
Following a steal in the neutral zone, Foster sped away on a clean breakaway. Indy goalie Mac Carruth who thought he had made the save but the puck trickled through his pads and across the line for Foster’s fifteenth of the season.
At the other end of the ice, Massa, who went into the contest with a personal four-game win streak, was doing everything in his power to make Foster’s score hold up. He faced and stopped eleven shots in the first and then denied the Fuel on two power play opportunities in the middle frame.
He saved some of his best work for late in the stanza. With less than five minutes to go before the intermission, Indy’s Rhett Bly broke in all alone. Massa used his stick to diffuse the situation, poking the puck away before Bly could get around the netminder.
Massa went to the poke check again in the final minute of the period and it helped turn defense into offense. His play led to a breakout by Erik Bradford who drove into the Indy end before dropping a pass to Johnny McInnis. McInnis quickly made a cut toward the slot area and whistled a shot just under the crossbar for his eleventh tally of the year. The goal, which came with 37.8 seconds left before the break, stunned the mostly partisan crowd of 5,892.
The Fuel, who had been shut out by Rapid City the night before, came out hopping mad in the third. They threw everything except the kitchen sink at Massa and the Solar Bears. Two Louis penalties fanned the flames as Indy’s power play pressed for a goal, piling up an 11-1 shot advantage in less than nine minutes of play.
Massa seemed to get stronger and stronger with each shot and save. Even when the Fuel began crashing his crease, the University of Nebraska-Omaha product turned his anger into an even stronger resolve to get the shutout. A third Orlando penalty helped Indy to finish with an 18-4 shot advantage in the final period but it was Massa and the Solar Bears who had the satisfaction of taking the win.
Carruth deserved a better fate, stopping 22 out of 24 shots in suffering the loss. Neither team was successful on the power play as Orlando went 0-2 while Indy was 0-5 with the man advantage.
Winners of five out of six on their seven-game road trip, the Solar Bears will be home for a few days before capping the trip with a visit to southwest Florida to battle the South division leading Florida Everblades next Friday.
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