GREENVILLE, SC – Sunday afternoon at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, the Orlando Solar Bears had an opportunity to put a little more space between themselves and the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in the standings, not to mention complete a four-game sweep of their hosts. All that stood in the way was a 20-year old rookie goalie looking for his first ECHL win.
Not only did Jacob Ingham stand in the way, he was nothing short of a brick wall.
Ingham made 44 saves to earn his initial ECHL victory and first professional shutout as Greenville (21-14-9-3) blanked Orlando (24-18-3-1) by a final of 5-0 in front of a crowd of 1,267. Garrett Thompson and Max Zimmer each scored a pair of goals for the Swamp Rabbits, who with the win jumped back over the Solar Bears into third place in the Eastern conference standings.
Orlando saw it four-game winning streak get snapped in the loss, just the second handed to them by Greenville in eight meetings so far this season. Rookie netminder Michael Lackey, playing for the first time since April 2nd, made 20 saves in the contest.
Just as they had on Saturday night, the two teams played to a scoreless draw in the first period. Once again, it was the Solar Bears who dominated the shot count as they outshot the Swamp Rabbits 14-6. Considering the fact that Greenville had two power play opportunities in the opening frame (one of which carried over to the middle period by 59 seconds), holding the Swamp Rabbits to six was an achievement.
For how relatively well things went for Orlando in the first, they fell apart in the second. The home team went on a scoring binge, netting three in a span of 5:51. The first came at the 4:52 mark when Zimmer hit a streaking Thompson motoring along the nearside boards. Thompson sped past an Orlando defender, headed for the net and lifted a backhander over Lackey’s left shoulder for his 11th goal of the season.
Less than four minutes later, the Swamp Rabbits took advantage of a mistake to score a shorthanded tally. The Solar Bears, playing with a four-minute power play, got caught with only one man back when Greenville busted out on a two-on-one break. Nick Poehling carried the puck into the Orlando end with Zimmer to his right. Poehling waited until the right moment a slipped a pass to Zimmer who snapped into the cage for his 12th of the year.
The troika of bad luck for the Solar Bears continued at 10:43 when just after killing off the double minor, Greenville was handed a second odd-man rush. This time Liam Pecararo held on to the biscuit, using his teammate as a decoy. As he got into the low slot area, Pecararo started to cut across the net face and as Lackey began to slide with him, Pecararo shot back to where he come from, beating the Orlando goalie for his ninth to break the game open at 3-0.
Just as they had a night earlier, the three goal lead brought out the tempers. Solar Bears defenseman Nolan Valleau and Swamp Rabbits forward Anthony Rinaldi dropped the gloves and fought at the 16:14 mark.
Greenville went for the kill in the final frame. Early in the period, an offensive zone faceoff win went back to Swamp Rabbits defenseman (and one-time Solar Bear) Sam Jardine who quickly raced down the half boards. Just as he got to the goal line, Jardine zipped a pass to the top of the crease where Thompson had gotten behind the Orlando defense and redirected it past Lackey for his second of the game and 12th of the season.
The icing on top of the victory cake came a little past the midpoint of the stanza. The Solar Bears took a pair of penalties, handing the Swamp Rabbits a five-on-three power play. It took all of eight seconds for Greenville to capitalize when Jardine sent a pass to Zimmer just above the goal line. Zimmer in turn lasered a feed to the slot where Patrick Bajkov was wide open. Unselfishly, Bajkov wasted no time in sending the puck back to Zimmer who slid it home from a tough angle for his second of the afternoon and 13th of the season.
From there it was all on Ingham to go after the win and shutout. Down the stretch, Orlando was able to muster up five shots on net but Ingham, a 2018 draft choice of the Los Angeles Kings, was calm, cool and collected. He fended all five attempts and skated off with first star honors for the game.
Notes: Final shots were 44-25 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-5 on the power play while the Swamp Rabbits were 1-for-4… Orlando’s four game winning streak and its run of consecutive games with a power play tally came to an end… The shorthanded goal allowed by the Solar Bears was their seventh given up this season… The Solar Bears, who are in the midst of a nine-game road trip, will head to North Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday to take on the South Carolina Stingrays before hitting Jacksonville on Thursday and a return trip to North Charleston on Friday.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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