ORLANDO, FL – With the midpoint of the 2017-18 ECHL regular season in the rearview mirror, the Orlando Solar Bears find themselves in the middle of a tight race for playoff position in the South division. Making matters worse, the Solar Bears schedule had on it seven more meetings with the Eastern conference leading Florida Everblades including Sunday’s meeting at the Amway Center. Orlando needed a measure of redemption after Saturday’s gut-wrenching overtime loss to the Everblades just as much as the two points a win would provide it with.
Orlando forward J.J. Piccinich (14) celebrates one of his two goals on Sunday with teammate Chris Crane (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
It was not easy but the Solar Bears found a way to beat the pesky squad from southwest Florida.
Led by two goals and an assist from J.J. Piccinich, Orlando (18-17-5-1, 42 points) went in front and held on for a 5-3 victory over the Everblades (29-7-1-2, 61 points) in front of an announced crowd of 5,510. Joe Perry added a goal and an assist while Max Novak recorded three helpers and goalie Mackenzie Skapski stopped 36 of 39 shots as the Solar Bears went over the .500 mark for the first time since October 27th.
“It’s always great to win so we’re happy with it. I thought the guys worked hard,” Orlando head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said. “They (Florida) really pushed at the end and Skaps held us in there.”
With a short turnaround for an afternoon tilt following Saturday night’s meeting, Sunday’s festivities nearly started in the pre-game warmups when both squads ended up at center ice exchanging verbal barbs across the red line. Nothing came of the conversations but it did set a tone for things to come.
Taking their coach’s pleadings for a better start to the game, the Solar Bears struck early to open the scoring. Just 1:29 into the first period, Chris LeBlanc grabbed a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot between the legs of Florida netminder Callum Booth for the Winthrop, MA native’s ninth goal of the season with helpers going to Mike Monfredo and Novak. The score was the start of a push that saw the home team control playto the tune of a 7-2 shots on net advantage.
The Everblades found their skating legs during a power play just prior to the midpoint of the frame. Between the two Florida man advantage units, the visitors piled five shots on Skapski, gaining control of the momentum of the contest.
Florida finally broke through at the 13:37 mark when Brett Bulmer scored a similar tally to LeBlanc, curling with the puck in the slot and sending a seeing-eye shot on net that found the back of the cage for his ninth of the year. Assists on the score were credited to Nelson Armstrong and Keegan Kanzig.
Even at one entering the second stanza, the Solar Bears hit the ice determined to seize control. That attitude paid dividends right away as a quick flurry of shots on Booth led to a score. The play began with a shot by Crane that Booth turned away but it went out to Alex Gudbranson at the point. Gudbranson wasted no time, driving it back on net, forcing the Florida goalie to make a second save. Again Booth’s rebound control failed him as the puck went right to Hunter Fejes who whacked it into the open side of the net for his 20th overall score and fourth with the Solar Bears at 1:15. The tally was also Fejes’ first since he netted a hat trick against Jacksonville on January 5th.
Orlando captain Sean Zimmerman (left) tangled with Florida’s Brett Bulmer during Sunday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Orlando pushed its lead to 3-1 a little under seven minutes later when its suddenly resurgent power play connected. The sequence began with Nolan Valleau dropping the puck to Perry who fired it on net. Although Booth made the stop, the disc got away and slid to Piccinich who buried it for his seventh of the season.
Piccinich’s score seemed to light the fuse on the simmering tensions between the two teams. Just seven seconds after the ensuing faceoff, Solar Bears veteran forward Darryl Bootland squared off with Florida’s Kyle Neuber in a bout that left Bootland cut and Neuber off the ice for 17 total minutes while Bootland was tagged for seven penalty minutes.
Following another dust-up that led to misconducts to Orlando’s Sam Jardine and Florida’s Bulmer, the Solar Bears continued their hot scoring streak. Late in the period, Novak and Piccinich combined to thwart the Everblades on a rush. Novak took the puck and sent Piccinich away on a break-in that the speedy forward from Paramus, NJ finished off with a shot over Booth’s catching glove for his second of the game.
Asked about his offensive burst, Piccinich quickly credited his teammates.
“Gotta give credit to my linemates. I thought we did a pretty good job especially in the first and second [periods] playing in their end and playing a three-quarter ice game,” Piccinich said. “That’s how we were able to generate offense.”
Florida was not ready to throw in the towel just yet. The Everblades got a power play opportunity with 58 seconds left in the middle frame and cashed in. Sniper John McCarron did the honors, putting the puck past Skapski with 7.1 seconds remaining off assists from Matt Mackenzie and Stephen MacAulay to trim the Orlando lead to 4-2 heading into the third.
The visitors dominated the final frame, pushing hard to get the equalizer but Skapski was dialed in. With his teammates getting pinned in their own defensive zone, Skapski calmly made save after save until McCarron banged home his second of the game at the 10:08 mark to pull the Everblades within one.
It took the Solar Bears thirteen minutes to generate their first shot of the period. They would log just one more but it was important as Piccinich set up Perry for an empty net tally with 3.1 seconds left on the clock to seal the win.
Valleau, who was Orlando’s representative at the ECHL All-Star Game in Indianapolis last week, said that getting the two points was much more important than the lack of shots in the final period.
“When you’retrying to protect a lead, especially against a first place team, you kind of get stuck in your ways in just trying to get pucks out of the zone and stuff like that. We gotkind of stuck in a bit of a lull. That’s not actually what we were planning on doing – we actually wanted to go at them in the third period and not sit back,” Valleau said. “It’s a little disappointing – the numbers – but ultimately if you get the results, it doesn’t really matter.”
Notes: Florida finished the game with a 39-20 advantage in shots including a 28-11 margin over the final two periods… Orlando’spower play went 1-for-3 in the contest while the Everblades went 1-for-6… The victory got the Solar Bears to .500 at home as their record improved to 7-7-3-1 at the Amway Center… Fejes came within an assist of a Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist and a fight) as he dropped the gloves with Florida’s Armstrong late in the second period… The teams combined for 76 penalty minutes in the game (40 for the Everblades and 36 for the Solar Bears)… Orlando is off until Friday when the Solar Bears head up to North Charleston to take on the South Carolina Stingrays.
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