ORLANDO, FLA – Coming off two losses over the weekend, the Orlando Solar Bears needed a win Thursday night against the Idaho Steelheads before heading out on a five-game road trip. It may not have been easy, but Coach Anthony Noreen’s troops got the job done.
Matt Rupert scored twice in Orlando’s win Thursday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
Led by Matt Rupert’s two goals, Orlando (5-3-1-0, 11 points) edged the Steelheads (4-6-2-0, 10 points) by a final score of 5-4 in front of an announced crowd of 4,717 at the Amway Center. Brett Findlay added a goal and an assist for the host Solar Bears who nearly saw a four-goal lead in the third period evaporate.
“For the first forty, I would even say fifty [minutes], I really liked us. I thought even when they scored late, what I liked was that nothing changed. Our defensemen were still getting up on the rush. We were still playing the same way,” Noreen said. “I really liked our resolve in the first [period] when we gave up the first one (goal). I thought we probably should have had a couple before that. We fought back really well in the second. The turning point of the game came when Carl Nielsen felt like someone was taking advantage of a teammate and [he] goes out and sticks up for them. Next thing you know, we put two in the net.”
Nielsen, who came out of retirement roughly two weeks ago to once again put on the Solar Bears jersey, may have been the catalyst for things in the final frame but the road to that point was not smooth sailing. The Solar Bears had to fight hard to get and keep the momentum; still, it was the composure down the stretch that helped them hang tough.
“All the leaders kind of stepped up and just said settle down, we’re still in the lead, we’ve got control,” Rupert said. “Whenever you’re in the lead, you’ve got full control so you don’t have to worry about that.”
In the wake of two losses to the Florida Everblades, the home fans were hoping for a much better effort and result on Thursday. Things did not start well as the visiting Steelheads got on the board first when Taylor Peters turned the corner on an Orlando defender and scooped a shot back over the shoulder of Solar Bears goalie Ryan Massa 6:20 into the contest. It ended up being the lone goal in a period that saw a total of 25 shots (13 by Idaho) that kept Massa and Steelheads’ netminder Maxime Lagace busy.
The tide began to turn early in the second when Rupert was in the right place at the right time. Brady Vail stole the puck in the Idaho defensive end and fed a pass back to Brenden Miller at the point. Miller fired a shot that hit Rupert’s elbow and deflected past Lagace for the Toronto prospect’s third tally of the year.
Just past the twelve minute mark, the Solar Bears took the lead for good when Jack Rodewald came off the right wing boards and found Findlay alone in the slot. Findlay took the pass and lasered a shot off of Lagace’s catching glove into the back of the net for his team-leading sixth score of the season.
The tenuous one goal lead that Orlando started the third period with became an afterthought very quickly. Just ten seconds into the final frame, Johnny McInnis and Vail (two assists) worked a game along the boards while Rupert got loose just to the right of the Idaho net. Vail slid a quick pass down to Rupert who shifted into a shooting position and beat Lagacy under the arm for his second of the night.
Carl Nielsen returned to the Orlando lineup Thursday night and played a key role (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
Seconds after the ensuing face-off, Nielsen came to the aid of a teammate and got into a heavyweight battle with the Steelheads’ Chance Braid. By the time the linesemen stepped in, Braid was bleeding and the Amway Center crowd was enjoying the display.
“I don’t even really know who it was that asked me ‘hey Nieler, do you want to go?’. I turned around and dropped the gloves and that was that,” Nielsen said. “First game back, I figured it’s now or never. What a way to jump back into the game.”
The energy on the bench went off the charts after the fight. Orlando’s lead grew to 4-1 a little over a minute later when defenseman Mark Louis walked off the half boards and fired a shot that Lagace (25 saves) stopped. The rebound popped away from the netminder and Louis, who followed his shot in, grabbed the rebound and flipped a backhander home. Then at the 3:04 mark with the Solar Bears on a power play, Erik Bradford made a great play to keep the puck in at the blueline. Lindsay Sparks picked up the loose puck, skated right down the slot and went top corner with a shot that lit the goal light. All told in just over three minutes, Orlando had put five shots on net and three had gone in.
The Steelheads could have hung their heads but chose instead to fight back. Colton Beck buried a shot from the top of the crease at the 6:14 mark and scored again just past the midpoint of the period to make it 5-3. When Zach Kamrass took a feed from Beck and scored a power play goal with 6:40 left in regulation, Idaho was within one and charging hard.
“It was a crazy period. getting a few goals like that in the third period was a good thing for our team,” Rupert said. “The defensive play was not very good. We have to work on that. We have a lot of things to work on for the next game. It’s a learning curve for everybody.”
With his teammates putting just two shots on net in the final seventeen minutes, it was up to Massa to plug the leaks in the dam. He settled down after Kamrass’ tally, shutting down the Steelheads the rest of the way to finish with 30 saves and a hard-fought win.
When asked after the game whether he cringed when Nielsen dropped the gloves, Noreen said that it was a sign of leadership – something that will help guide the young Solar Bears in a positive direction.
“His presence on the bench was probably the biggest I’ve felt from anybody all year just as far as [if] we do something good let’s build on it. If something happens where we need to pick somebody up, he’s the first guy picking them up,” Noreen said of Nielsen. “I thought we really built off his energy the whole game.”
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