ORLANDO, FLA – It is a given that in hockey, although even strength play is vital, special teams can make or break a game or even a season. Whether it is a key power play score or an important penalty kill, getting contributions from the units charged with those tasks are a key component to winning championships.
Carson McMillan netted one of two short handed goal for Orlando Friday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
Friday night at the Amway Center, the Orlando Solar Bears got two goals from their penalty killers and a 40-save performance out of goalie Garret Sparks to blank the South Carolina Stingrays 4-0 in front of an announced crowd of 8,520. With the win, the Solar Bears moved back into a tie for fifth place in the ECHL’s East division with the Stingrays.
Brady Vail and Carson McMillan each scored goals while their team was killing off a penalty in the third period. Those scores along with tallies by Jake Cepis and Stefan Della Rovere were more than enough support for Sparks who notched his second shutout of the season.
“We had a lot of positive energy on the bench so that really got the guys going,” Vail said about the effort. “Sparksy had a great game between the pipes. He really kept us in it.”
The forty saves Sparks made were just the latest in a string of great games by the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect. In his last five starts since returning to Orlando after a quick callup to the AHL, Sparks has faced 229 shots and turned aside 218 of them.
Ever the consummate professional, Sparks credits his teammates with making a large contribution to his success.
“We’ve been working well together on breakouts and in the [defensive] zone and communication. I pick them up and they pick me up,” Sparks said. “I have to thank them for everything that we’ve been able to accomplish despite the shot totals lately.”
Looking to avenge Tuesday’s loss to the Stingrays, Orlando (20-15-3-0, 43 points) needed a much better start. Instead, Sparks and South Carolina netminder Jeff Jakaitis duplicated their opening period performances from the previous meeting with two major exceptions.
The first came with 6:39 remaining in the frame. South Carolina’s Braden Pimm put a shot on Sparks that the goaltender stopped. Pimm could still see the puck and poked it through Sparks’ pads but referee Frederic Leblanc waived off the score, saying he had lost sight of the puck and blown the whistle.
Not too long after that, the Solar Bears opened the scoring when David Broll put a cross-ice pass on the blade of Cepis who nailed a one-timer past Jakaitis.
Orlando’s aggressive penalty killing turned defense into offense midway through the second period. Just as the Solar Bears were killing off his penalty, Della Rovere came out of the box. Cepis found him in the neutral zone, creating an odd-man rush into the Stingrays end. Della Rovere and Cepis played catch with the puck a couple of times before Della Rovere whipped a shot into the back of the net to double the lead.
“We made a couple of changes systematically there [on the penalty kill]. We have some guys who can skate that can pressure up ice a little bit more,” Orlando head coach Vince Williams said. “We tried to do that a little bit more tonight.”
That little bit more was a big key to finishing off the Stingrays. With Della Rovere in the penalty box for a second time, Vail stole the puck in the neutral zone and used his speed to create a break in. Using teammate Denver Manderson as a decoy, Vail leaned into a wrist shot from the faceoff circle to Jakaitis’ left and hit the space on the netminder’s stick side at the 8:10 mark of the third.
“I just tried to take a good angle on the defenseman. He tried to make a soft play up the boards and I happened to get a stick on it,” Vail said about his fourth goal of the year. “I tried to slow down and look for Mandy [who was] trailing up but the low blocker is a tough place to [make a] stop so I kind of just shot it and was lucky that it went in.”
McMillan capped the scoring with less than three minutes to go. Shortly after Sparks had stoned three consecutive South Carolina shots, Brock Montgomery caught up to the puck along the half boards. He scooped a backhand pass to the center of the ice where McMillan outraced two Stingrays defenders and grabbed it. With Jakaitis (20 saves) having been pulled to create a two-man advantage, McMillan skated to within a few feet of the empty net and slid the puck in.
The Solar Bears now hit the road for four games in five days next week – the first out-of-state travel the team has had to make in more than a month. Williams said that Friday’s win will go a long way to putting his team on the right track for what lies ahead.
“We all know what’s at stake and the urgency level. I think it was more about managing our game and getting back to what we need to do,” Williams said. “We’ll continue to reinforce it and show it (via video room work) tomorrow. We’ll just keep getting better and keep teaching.”
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