ORLANDO, FL – With a snow slide outside and ugly holiday sweaters everywhere one turned, the festive air inside the Amway Center on Saturday as the Orlando Solar Bears finished their pre-Christmas break schedule seemed conducive to a win for the home team.
Too bad the Norfolk Admirals decided that they would play the part of the grinch who stole the extra point.
Former Solar Bear Darik Angeli scored in the fifth round of a shootout to give the visiting Admirals (11-17-1-0, 23 points) a 3-2 victory over the host Solar Bears(11-14-4-1, 27 points) in front of an announced crowd of 7,168 and a local television audience looking in at Orlando’s annual Teddy Bear Toss game. Joe Perry was the Solar Bear who made it rain stuffed animals and Chris LeBlanc netted a short-handed score to provide the offense for Orlando.
Angeli’s tally ended what had become a titanic battle between the netminders – Ty Reichenbach for Norfolk and Cal Heeter for Orlando – who kept their respective scoresheets clean for quite some time in the contest. Reichenbach finished the game with 45 saves to complete a three-game sweep of the Solar Bears while Heeter again played well, making 35 saves in suffering the loss.
“I thought they worked hard. It’s unfortunate yhat we couldn’t come up with the two points,” Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky said after the game. “We had a slow start and I thought we battled back. I think we controlled the play for most of the night.”
That slow start, something that has been an issue in more games than Berehowsky would care to see, took some of the air out of the building before the game was six minutes old. Just 1:17 in, Norfolk’s Brodie Dupont made a pass from below the goal line in the Orlando defensive end to Grant Besse. Besse’s initial attempt at a shot failed to get to the net but the puck somehow found Besse again. This time he slid a backhanded pass across the slot to Christian Horn who buried it into a wide open net for his first of the season on his first shift after being called up from the SPHL’s Peoria Rivermen late Friday night.
A delay of game penalty to Orlando’s Darryl Bootland was the catalyst for the Admirals second score of the night four and a half minutes later. Playing a man up, Michael Young drove the puck down the wing to Heeter’s right. Just as his angle was starting to close off, Young sent the disc at the net where it got past Heeter’s leg pad and skidded into the cage for Young’s fourth tally of the year.
The score stayed 2-0 in favor of the visitors until the Solar Bears converted an offensive zone face-off into a menagerie of stuffed animals on the ice. At the 16:20 mark, Max Novak won a draw into the low slot area. It hit the skate of a defender and slowly slid further into prime scoring position. Perry, who has been playing well since returning from an injury during the recent road trip, pounced on it and without thinking fired it at the net. The shot got past Reichenbach for Perry’s second of the season and more importantly began the now annual ritual of hockey fans supporting children throughout the region with toys of every shape and size.
“It’s a special goal obviously to make all the bears come,” Perry said. “I’ve been having a little bit of a tough time scoring goals right now so it felt good to get that one for sure.”
At the start of the second period, the fans were barely back in their seats before things got a bit more interesting. Off the face-off to open the frame, Bootland and Norfolk’s Mitchell Mueller dropped the gloves in what became a one-sided bout when Mueller went into a protective mode. The fighting majors were just two of a number of penalties that put a dent in the flow of the contest.
A too many men on the ice call against the Solar Bears11:23 into the stanza gave the Admirals their third consecutive power play but it was the home team that took advantage. Late in the penalty kill, a turnover at the Orlando defensive blueline became a two-on-one rush with Novak carrying it into the Norfolk end. Novak waited until the time was right and made a pass to LeBlanc who went top shelf for the short-handed goal and his seventh of the year.
That goal was the final one allowed by either netminder for the rest of the second, all of the third and the entire five minute overtime frame. Both goalies were outstanding during the scoreless stretch as Heeter and Reichenbach put on a show. Heeter was especially impressive, stoning Young on a tough shot and denying Besse by using his mask to turn away a shot. At the other end, Reichenbach had to face a four minute high sticking penalty to Angeli that rolled over into the extra period. The Solar Bears fired a number of shots on the net but the Admirals netminder was equal to the task.
“He [Reichenbach] played well the whole series,” Berehowsky said about the Norfolk goalie.
The goalies continued their mastery in the shootout as none of the shooters could find the back of the net at either end through four rounds. In round five. Reichenbach denied Novak before Angeli stuck a dagger into his former team’s heart with the winner.
The loss extended the Solar Bears winless streak at home to three games since returning from the road trip. Perry said that the team is trying hard to reverse the trend ton make the Amway Center a hard place for visitors to succeed.
“I think the normal thing is to be better at home than on the road.I couldnlt put a finger on it as to why we’ve been struggling at home,”Perry said. “We’ve been playing prety good. We just haven’t put sixty minutes together and got the win. We’ve got to treat the fans to some more wins. I mean they’re amazing out there especially tonight so we’ve got to find ways to get wins at home.
The Solar Bears are off until next Wednesday when they host the Jacksonville Icemen at the Amway Center. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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