ESTERO, FLA – The way the Orlando Solar Bears have been playing of late, it would take a near perfect performance to beat them at home. Saturday night, Orlando rode down to southwest Florida to take on its in-state rival, the same team it had soundly beaten the night before.
Maybe it was the change in surroundings but this time the Everblades had just enough fire power to take down the Solar Bears.
Led by John McCarron’s four goals, Florida (13-3-1-2, 29 points) outlasted Orlando (11-6-2-0, 24 points) by a final of 8-6 in front of an announced crowd of 4,114 at Germain Arena. The Solar Bears loss came despite the efforts of Joe Perry and Chris Crane who both scored twice in defeat.
On a night where the Solar Bears gave up two power play goals, two short-handed scores and a pair of empty net tallies, the fact that Orlando stayed in the contest until the final ten seconds was a testament to the new and improved attitude of the team. They kept digging and still had a chance to send the game into overtime until Brenden O’Donnell scored the Everblades second empty-netter with 5.7 ticks left on the clock.
Looking to make up for Friday’s loss in Orlando, Florida controlled stretches of the first period, working itself into a two goal lead by the time the frame entered its final two minutes. The Everblades took advantage of a penalty to the Solar Bears Ben Danford when Michael Kirkpatrick and Matt Berry worked the puck around the Orlando defensive end before putting the disc in front where McCarron sent it past Solar Bears goalie Ryan Massa for his seventh tally of the season.
When Berry capped an odd-man rush into the offensive zone and lasered a drive over Massa’s glove hand just under the crossbar for his seventh of the year, the Everblades had themselves a two-goal margin with 2:37 left in the frame. That second score seemed to wake up the visitors and they responded when Crane knocked home the rebound of an Eric Baier shot for his seventh of the season (fourth with Orlando) at the 19:34 mark to trim the Florida lead to 2-1.
Carrying momentum from the Crane tally, the Solar Bears evened the score 3:22 into the second when Brett Findlay fired a pass from the corner to the slot where Perry buried it behind Everblades netminder Anthony Peters for his team-leading eleventh goal. The score was also Perry’s first point in five games away from the Amway Center.
The tie lasted barely a minute before the home team went back in front. It came when Brant Harris fed Eric Scheid who netted his sixth of the season at the 4:30 mark. Orlando responded a little over three minutes later when Crane snuck a shot past Peters from a bad angle for his second of the night.
Two minutes after Crane tied the score, the game’s pivotal moment came when Florida’s Logan Roe went to the penalty box for a cross check. During the penalty kill, the Everblades went on the attack. The push led to Mike Ferrantino setting up Evan Bloodoff for his first of the year at 9:44 and then McCarron picking off a pass and a breakaway that culminated in the forward’s second goal of the game. Perry netted his second of the contest off a feed from Patrick Watling late in the stanza to make it a 5-4 game in favor of Florida at the intermission.
McCarron completed his hat trick on a power play 12:58 into the third period when he walked the puck above the goal line and fired it past Massa on the goalie’s blocker side. Florida held that two-goal lead until the final two minutes when with Massa pulled, McCarron slid the puck into the open net for his fourth of the game and tenth of the season.
There was still time on the clock and that thought gave the Solar Bears hope. Defenseman Ben Danford put the puck on the stick of Austin Block and the Denver, Colorado native did the rest, firing a shot from a sharp angle that slipped past Peters (26 saves) to close the gap to 7-5. Then with 20.6 seconds left, Tony Cameranesi won the puck in the corner and fed Eric Faille who scored his seventh of the season to bring the Solar Bears within one at 7-6.
Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky again pulled Massa (27 saves) for an extra attacker but O’Donnell sealed the Solar Bears fate with his empty netter to close the scoring.
Orlando will continue its ten-game road trip Tuesday night when it pulls into Greenville, South Carolina to take on the Swamp Rabbits. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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