ORLANDO, FLA – For a good portion of the past month, the Orlando Solar Bears have been having to depend on its defense and goaltending to pick up wins and much needed points. Saturday night, the offense kicked in and Ryan Massa did the rest.
Orlando forward Chase Witala celebrates his game-opening goal Saturday night (Photo courtesy Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
Six different Solar Bears found the back of the net and Massa made 42 saves as Orlando (23-15-5-2, 53 points) downed the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (23-18-4-1, 51 points) 6-3 in front of an announced crowd of 7,748 at the Amway Center. The victory, coupled with South Carolina’s loss in Manchester, allowed the Solar Bears to regain sole possession of second place in the hotly contested ECHL South division.
Defenseman Ben Danford chipped in with four assists, doubling his point output from the last two contests and tying an ECHL Solar Bears franchise record for most assists in one game. Forward Mat Sisca set the mark back on October 19th, 2012 – the “Out of Hibernation” season for Orlando.
“I thought we had a really good first period. I thought after that we had a few lulls,” Orlando Head Coach Drake Berehowsky said. “The guys still battled and we’re thankful for the two points.”
With the knowledge that Greenville was playing its third road game in four days, Orlando went for the jugular early. Just 3:10 into the opening period, Danford rang a shot from the point off the post to the left of Swamp Rabbits goalie Mackenzie Skapski. The puck dropped into the crease behind the netminder and Witala got to it first and pushed it across the goal line for his fourth goal of his rookie season.
“I think just keeping it simple and just doing the little things right,” Witala said when asked what created his jump in the game. “Playing with Austin [Block] and Gazer [Alex Gacek] there, we’re not the biggest guys out there but we use our speed and skill. It just makes it easy playing with those two.”
The lead went to two at the 6:40 mark thanks to a bit of fortune. Danford lined up a shot on net that Chris Crane got his stick on in front. The puck changed direction and hit Darik Angeli in the skate and skidded into the net for Angeli’s ninth of the season and sixth with the Solar Bears.
The rest of the period, and in fact the game, belonged to Massa. The Littleton, Colorado native was rock solid in the first frame, knocking away all 15 shots that Greenville fired in his direction.
The Solar Bears had an even quicker start to the second stanza. It took only 1:07 for the home team to bump its lead to 3-0 when Gacek cleaned up the rebound of a shot by Chad LaRose for his 17th of the season and 9th with Orlando. Gacek was coming out of the penalty box when he joined LaRose on a rush. LaRose’s shot was stopped by Skapski but Gacek was there to drive the puck into the net. LaRose’s assist was his first point in the ECHL since his rookie season of 2003-04 with the Florida Everblades.
It took the Swamp Rabbits all of 13 seconds to provide a response. It came when Michael Joly busted down the wing to the right of Massa. Joly got just enough spacing from the Orlando defender and ripped a shot from the face-off circle inside the right post for his 10th tally of 2016-17.
Late in the middle frame, a penalty to Greenville’s Chad Duchesne put Orlando on a power play that carried into the third. One minute and 18 seconds into the period, the man advantage paid off when Joe Perry somehow found the puck in a big scramble in front of the Swamp Rabbits net and jammed it home for his 23rd goal of the season.
The rest of the frame was pretty quiet – that is until the last four minutes. At the 16:04 mark, Greenville’s Angelo Miceli took the puck and started to cross the front of the net during a power play. Massa followed him and Miceli made a pretty back pass to Bretton Cameron who was standing all alone at the post. Cameron put the puck into the open side for his 13th score of the year.
Two minutes later, things got wild. Solar Bears defenseman Kyle Shapiro ended up on top of a Swamp Rabbits player. The two created a logjam in the crease that kept Massa from getting to a shot that went in as the net was knocked off its pegs. Referee Ryan Murphy waived off the goal but in the ensuing scrum, Miceli popped Massa in the mask, drawing a penalty as well as the ire of the Orlando fans.
The hockey gods took note of the bad karma set off by Miceli and on the power play, Shane Conacher set up Chris Bradley for a one-time bomb that beat Skapski for the defenseman’s second goal of the season.
Greenville did not want to go down easily, getting a goal from Maxime St-Cyr (3rd of the season) with a minute to go. Block finished off the scoring when he out-battled a defender for a loose puck and put a shot over Skapski’s left shoulder for his 9th tally.
Massa, who was making his fourth start since missing time with an injury, faced 40-plus shots for the fifth time this season and won his second of those five. He said that he is getting back to his old self with each passing game.
“Coming back from that concussion, it’s just been a game at a time getting my timing back, getting my ability to read the play efficiently, putting the pucks in good places, making good plays with the puck,” Massa said. “I felt really comfortable tonight. I loved the way the boys played in front of me though. Guys were blocking shots, we weren’t turning over pucks in bad areas. We were doing the little things right and it showed at the end of the game.”
Orlando now heads out on a five-game road trip that will roll through Atlanta, Greenville and South Carolina before ending in Estero against the Florida Everblades.
Notes: Danford’s four points extended his points streak to three games (1 goal, 6 assists) while Angeli pushed his streak to five games (3 goals, 3 assists)… Greenville’s Skapski made 27 saves in taking the loss… Orlando’s power play was a perfect 2-for-2 in the contest while Greenville went 1-for-3
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