NORFOLK, VA – When a team finds itself missing a slew of offensive talent, the coaching staff usually looks to other players in the lineup to take up the slack. That is just the situation the Orlando Solar Bears are finding themselves in while they tackle a monster nine-game road trip. As the team took to the ice at The Scope in Norfolk Friday night, the Solar Bears were looking for just that kind of balance – and they got it from several different sources.
Four different Solar Bears lit the goal light while four others chipped in with assists as Orlando (18-15-3-0) downed the host Norfolk Admirals (15-19-2-2) 4-2 in front on an announced crowd of 3,860. Dylan Fitze, Jonne Tammela, Kevin Lohan and Trevor Olson each scored a goal for the Solar Bears in support of goalie Corbin Boes who made 27 saves to pick up his seventh win of the season.
Wanting to avenge a loss to the Admirals on Wednesday, Orlando was more than ready to take the game to the home team right out of the gate. In a sign of things to come, Tammela came close to scoring 1:14 after the opening faceoff when he got in and beat Norfolk goalie Merrick Madsen with a shot but watched as it slid through the crease and past the post.
It was the start of a six consecutive shot barrage that concluded in the game’s first tally. It came at the 2:44 mark when after holding the puck in the Norfolk defensive zone, Chris LeBlanc rifled a shot from the point that was redirected by Fitze in the high slot past Madsen for his fifth goal of the season.
The next shot came one minute later and also belonged to the Solar Bears and it too found the back of the net. Defenseman Myles McGurty started the sequence by feeding the puck to Mathieu Foget who gained the offensive zone. He then sent the puck to the slot area where it hit a defender and went to Tammela. The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect was able to drag the puck around the netminder and tuck it in for his eighth and a 2-0 lead that Orlando took to the intermission.
The visitors extended their lead to three early in the second period with offense from an unlikely source. During a four-on-four situation, Rob Mann sent the disc back to Lohan who blasted it from the top of the circle to Madsen’s left. The shot beat the Admirals goalieto the short side for Lohan’s first professional tally at the 3:46 mark.
It looked like the Solar Bears had a fourth straight score when Mike Monfredo was in front of the net to knock down a high shot and converted the rebound. Referee Jacob Rekucki immediately waived off the goal and penalized the Orlando defenseman for closing his hand on the puck .
The call turned out to be a big one as just two seconds after the ensuing Admirals power play expired, the home team got on the board. It came at the 9:15 mark when after winning a faceoff back to Don Olivieri, Ben Duffy was in the slot when Kelly Klima took a feed from Olivieri and backhanded a pass to him. Duffy quickly fired a shot under Boes and in for his ninth of the season and third in as two games against the Solar Bears.
Up 3-1 after two periods, Orlando had to kill off two Norfolk power plays in the first seven minutes of the final frame. The Solar Bears did an excellent job of clamping down defensively, allowing just two recorded shots on Boes during the two disadvantage situations.
Things got hairy for the Solar Bears with 6:32 left in regulation when Colby McAuley threw a big open-ice hit on a Norfolk player. Although the video appeared to show a clean hit, McAuley was hit with a match penalty for an illegal hit to the head. The Admirals took advantage of the resulting power play when T.J. Melancon set up former Solar Bear Darik Angeli for a one-time bomb that beat Boes for his sixth of the season and second in two games against his former team to trim the lead to 3-2.
It would be as close as the home team would get as Olson out the game away with an empty net goal with 28 seconds remaining for his sixth of the season.
The win pushed Orlando’s lead for fourth place in the ECHL’s South division to five points over Norfolk. The two teams will meet one more time this weekend on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at The Scope.
Notes: Final shots were 29-27 in favor of Norfolk… The Solar Bears went 0-for-5 on the power play in the contest while the Admirals were 1-for-10… Norfolk’s Madsen finished with 23 saves in the game… Several Solar Bears extended point, goal and assist streaks in the game: Foget (six game point streak – 2 goals, 5 assists), Mitch Hults (three game point streak – 1 goal, 4 assists), Tammela (two game goal streak – 2 goals) and McGurty (two game assist streak – 2 assists)… Tammela also leads the team with three goals and two assists in four games against Norfolk this season… Orlando ran its team streak of winning after leading following two periods to 14-0-0-0… The Solar Bears also improved their record when scoring first to 12-2-1-0… According to Solar Bears Director of Communications and Broadcasting Jesse Liebman, Orlando had 41 different players see ice time through the first 35 games heading into Friday’s game. By contrast, Liebman reported that the team used 45 different players… Last season at the halfway point of the season, Orlando had a 15-16-4-1 record.
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