ORLANDO, FLA – A handful of days ago, goaltender Kris Oldham got a call from Orlando Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky. Berehowsky’s team had just seen rookie netminder Michael Lackey get an offer to join the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack and with a stretch of five games in six days, the Solar Bears needed a second goalie who could spell Clint Windsor.
Saturday night in front of a very appreciative COVID-restricted home crowd of 2,250 at the Amway Center on First Responders Appreciation Night, Oldham made Berehowsky’s call pay off.
Oldham stopped 33 of 34 shots in his very first professional start and his new teammates gifted him with an offensive outburst as Orlando (18-13-3-1) drubbed the Jacksonville Icemen (14-14-1-3) by a final of 5-1. Aaron Luchuk led the Solar Bears with a goal and two assists while Nolan Valleau (goal, assist), Tad Kozun (goal, assist) and Joseph Garreffa (two assists) led the scoring attack.
The win halted a four game winless streak for the Solar Bears and was a respite after having not looking particularly good in two previous losses to the Icemen during the week. It also continued another streak for Orlando: the Solar Bears have never lost to Jacksonville on home ice, improving to an astonishing 20-0-0-0 at the Amway Center since the Icemen came into the ECHL in 2017.
The third meeting in four days between the Sunshine State rivals began in a fairly non-descript fashion, that is for everyone except Oldham. The Anchorage, Alaska native who finished his college career at Clarkson University where he played in eight games in the last two years, had gotten some playing time Friday night when Berehowsky pulled Windsor late in the Solar Bears loss to Jacksonville on Friday.
Oldham, a 6th round pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning, was under fire early and often. In the opening 3:51 of the contest, the rookie faced seven Icemen shots – several from close range – but held his ground. It took until the 13:57 mark of the first period for Jacksonville to solve him when Pascal Aquin tucked a shot between the goalie’s leg and the post for his eighth goal of the season.
Down by one as the second period began, the Solar Bears needed to get their offense in gear. Little did the home crowd or the Icemen know it but they were in for an eight minute bolt of lightning that saw Orlando take charge of the contest.
The outburst began at the 5:37 mark of the middle frame. Luchuk made a cross-ice pass to Kozun in the Jacksonville end and Kozun fired the puck between the legs of Icemen goalie Sean Bonar for his third goal of the season. That shot was the start of a 9-4 run by the home team on the shot board.
The ninth shot of that run was the one that put Orlando in front for good. It came during a four-on-four sequence keyed by a pass by Chris LeBlanc to Valleau who had gotten loose behind the Icemen defense. Valleau skated in, made a fake and then buried the puck in the back of the net for his second tally of the year to put the Solar Bears up 2-1.
The lead bumped up to 3-1 75 seconds later when Luchuk stole the puck in the Jacksonville end, muscled his way into the slot and found teammate Kyle Topping uncovered. Topping, one of the four players sent to Orlando by the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda earlier in the week, went top shelf with a shot that beat Bonar for his second ECHL goal of the season and first in a Solar Bears sweater.
Tempers got a little testy at the end of the period when Orlando’s Kevin Lohan and Jacksonville’s Jacob Friend were not so friendly with each other. When the two stepped out of the penalty box follow their matching minors, they engaged in a bout that sent them right back to the sin bin for another five minutes.
Late in the frame, Luchuk bagged his 12th goal of the season when Kozun dug the puck out of the corner and sent it out to his teammate. Luchuk was able to get around Bonar (24 saves) and tuck the biscut into the open cage to make it 4-1. Then with Bonar on the bench for an extra attacker, Garreffa picked up hus second helper of the night when he set up J.J. Piccinich for an empty netter, Piccinich’s fifth of the year, to seal the win.
The teams will head back up to Jacksonville for one more battle to close out the week on Sunday afternoon. Game time at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena is set for 3 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 34-29 in favor of Jacksonville… The Icemen went 0-for-5 on the power play while the Solar Bears were 0-for-2… Orlando now holds a 5-3-1-0 record against Jacksonville this season… LeBlanc’s assist on the Valleau goal was his 109th point as a member of the Solar Bears (40 goals, 69 assists). He needs two more points to tie former Orlando defenseman and captain Eric Baier for fourth place on the team’s all-time scoring list.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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