ORLANDO, FLA – Since December 3rd, the Orlando Solar Bears have had very little time to practice given their eighteen-day road trip and the Christmas break. Not being able to work on systems – especially special teams – can create issues on game night. Tuesday night at the Amway Center, that lack of work time and the failure to convert on chances caught up with them.
Led by Brendan O’Donnell’s two third period goals and solid goaltending by Daniel Altshuller, the Florida Everblades (18-6-1-2, 39 points) made Orlando (17-10-3-0, 37 points) pay for its failure to convert on its power play with a 3-1 win in front of an announced crowd of 6,133. The victory pushed the Everblades into sole possession of first place in the ECHL’s South division.
“I thought we gave up too many shots again tonight,” Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky said after the loss. “When we have our opportunities, we’ve got to learn to bury them.”
The Solar Bears loss to their in-state rival – the third such result in the teams’ last four meetings – came despite another brilliant performance by goalie Ryan Massa. Massa followed last Thursday’s franchise-record, 57-save performance with another 47 stops on 49 shots faced but this time his teammates could not provide him with enough offensive help.
That help could have come from Orlando’s power play units, which had four opportunities to beat Altshuller, who made 38 saves in the game, but failed on each attempt. The Solar Bears have now gone 0-for-29 with the man advantage since their last power play score in the first period on December 16th against Kalamazoo.
“We’ve got to get back to work on it [power play]. We haven’t had an opportunity to practice it in probably a month,” Berehowsky said about his special teams units. “Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be a work day and we’ve got two good days of practice that we’re looking forward to. Hopefully we can correct it and get the ship turned.”
In what appeared to be a repeat of last Thursday’s tilt, the visiting Everblades began the game with a ferocious attack on Massa and the Solar Bears net. In less than seven minutes of action in the opening frame, Florida had posted eleven shots to Orlando’s four but Massa denied each and every one.
Taking a cue from their netminder, the Solar Bears opened the scoring at the 11:06 mark of the period. It came when Patrick Watling sent the puck to Eric Faille who jetted down the wing to the left of Altshuller. As he began to curl in at the base of the faceoff circle, Faille drilled a pass to the front of the net where defenseman Nik Brouillard had jumped up and found space at the crease. Altshuller stopped the rookie’s first attempt but Brouillard stayed with the puck and shoved the rebound across the goal line for his fifth of the season. It was the only score of a wide-open period that saw the teams combine for 35 shots on net (18-17 Orlando).
“I was driving the net and all of a sudden I was all alone,” Brouillard said. “Faillsy just found me in the slot and I buried it.”
The visitors continued their push in the second period but Massa held the fort in the early going. Orlando seemed to be patiently waiting for an opportunity and it came around the seven minute mark of the frame when Jon Jutzi stepped into a bouncing puck and wired a blast that hit the crossbar square on the flat side of the disc. It came off the iron and hit the ice causing it to skip and bounce over the stick of Solar Bears forward Tony Cameranesi who swung and missed with the open side of the net staring at him.
That missed chance would come back to the Solar Bears but not in a way anyone expected. With Matt Berry in the penalty box, the Everblades mounted a counter attack to the Orlando power play. A quick pass from Zach Kamrass sent Adam Brace out on an odd-man rush. Using his teammate as a decoy, the former Solar Bear skated unchallenged into the faceoff circle to Massa’s right and buried a shot into the back of the net for a short-handed tally and his sixth score of the season.
Orlando had two more chances before the period to get the Brace goal back on the man advantage but failed.Altshuller had something to do with that, especially on the second of the opportunities when he stopped a shot by Taylor Doherty from the point and two quick followup attempts by Joe Perry.
Massa and Altshuller put on a clinic through the rest of the second and well into the third period. The netminders matched save for save, giving the fans the thought that overtime was a real possibility. Massa’s best save of the final frame came when he stoned Eric Scheid who got in tight while Altshuller’s came against defenseman Chris Bradley who attempted to recreate Brouillard’s goal off a pass from Watling.
With an extra period of hockey looming, O’Donnell found the puck on his stick in the Orlando defensive end near the top of the circle to Massa’s left. He did a loop and finding no one moving to challenge, he ripped a shot to the top corner above Massa’s catching glove through traffic for his fifteenth of the season.
Florida managed enough pressure to keep Berehowsky from pulling Massa for an extra attacker until there was less than a minute left in regulation. O’Donnell sealed the win with an empty net goal with 3.8 seconds remaining off a steal and pass by Brant Harris to post the final score.
Brouillard, who has seen time as both a forward and a defenseman in recent games, agreed with Berehowsky that the power play needs work – something that can be accomplished over the next two days before Greenville comes to the City Beautiful for a weekend set that will close out the 2016 portion of the schedule.
“I think we’ve got to get a lot more shots to the net, more traffic. Right now we just have trouble getting into the zone so we’ll have to readjust some things and practice on it,” he said. “We were on the road for almost three weeks. The next two days are going to be important for us and we’ll readjust things.”
Notes: Chris Crane returned to the lineup after missing the entire road trip and last Thursday’s game. He took the center position between Denver Manderson and Perry that was left open when Brett Findlay was recalled by the Toronto Marlies last Friday…Crane needs two more points for 100 in the ECHL while Manderson needs two points for 100 with the Solar Bears… Altshuller’s save percentage in Tuesday’s game was a gaudy .974 while Massa turned in a save percentage of .954… Florida now leads the battle for the Wawa Sunshine Cup four victories to two… Friday’s game with Greenville is set for 7 p.m. while Saturday’s contest has been moved to 4 p.m.
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