ORLANDO, FLA – The last time Orlando Solar Bears forward and Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Mitch Hults scored a goal, it was January 20th in a road game in North Charleston, South Carolina. During the twenty games since, Hults had picked up assists by setting up teammates but lighting the goal light was a tough prospect.
Friday night at the Amway Center, just when his team needed it most, Hults broke through in a big way.
Hults scored two goals and goalie Connor Ingram made 25 saves as the host Solar Bears evened their best-of-seven ECHL South Division semifinal series with a 3-2 victory over the South Carolina Stingrays in front of a raucous crowd of 7,324. Tayler Thompson score the other for Orlando, which withstood a furious comeback by the Stingrays in the third period. Game three of the series is scheduled for Wednesday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.
Orlando forward Mitch Hults (25, right) celebrates one of his two second period goals with teammate Troy Bourke (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“He came out at this morning’s skate, he practiced angry and that’s what we want to see,” Orlando Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said about Hults. “He came out tonight in the game and he played a great game. I’m proud of the way he’s battled through it, even though its been tough but he’s battled through. He’s a big part of this team and hopefully he’ll continue to have success and hopefully people will feed off of that as well.”
With the knowledge of the next three games being on the road, the Solar Bears were well aware that Friday’s game two was as close to a must win as a game two could be. Just as it was two nights earlier, the first period was a showcase for the goalies, Ingram for Orlando and Parker Milner for South Carolina. Milner was the first to be tested when Colby McAuley had a chance early but the Stingrays netminder laid out and snared McAuley’s attempted stuff in at the post.
Three minutes later, it was Ingram’s turn to make a big save. Grant Besse got loose for a breakaway but the Solar Bears backstop turned him away and late denied Patrick Gaul of a sure tally. Ingram ended the frame with 12 saves while Milner stopped 15 to keep the score even at 0-0 after one.
With their failure to score reaching four periods, the Solar Bears needed a jolt and it was the high energy of Thompson that provided it. Just 2:42 into the second period, MikeMonfredo and Dylan Fitze applied some forechecking pressure in the South Carolina defensive and created a turnover. The puck bounced to Thompson who had plenty of ice between him and the net to drive at the cage. Getting in close, Thompson got Milner to bite on a backhand move and then went forehand to tuck the disc between the goalie’s skate and the post for his first goal of the post-season.
Needless to say, the tally was a major boost to the Solar Bears bench and fans.
Orlando’s Tayler Thompson celebrates his goal that ignited a three-goal second period by the Solar Bears Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“I think anytime we score, it’s a huge boost but getting the first two or three goals there, that’s huge,” Thompson said about his all important tally. “After going down 1-0 kind of deflates the bench but we got that first goal and everyone was buzzing like that. I think it was maybe two shifts later [that] Mitch scored. That was a huge momentum swing and we just kept rolling.”
Three minutes and 35 seconds after Thompson broke the seal on the South Carolina net, the Solar Bears were back at it. Chris LeBlanc started the play when he curled up the half boards to Milner’s right. He sent the puck at the net, hoping to connect with Troy Bourke who was next to the post. Bourke got his stick blade on the rubber, sending it careening across the crease to where a wide-open Hults whacked it home to make it 2-0.
The hard-hitting tone of the game took a turn when South Carolina’s Mason Mitchell slew-footed Solar Bears veteran defenseman Akim Aliu, drawing a match penalty and game misconduct while putting the home team on the power play. Orlando was patient and on an zone entry carry, defenseman Zach Frye slid the puck back to Fitze who immediately returned it to Frye at the crease. Frye sent it across to Hults who collected it on his backhand, moved it to his forehand and threaded the needle past a diving Milner for his second of the night.
“Both of them kind of the puck just came across the crease right to me and I was lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time and put the puck in the net,” Hults said about his two scores. “Tip your hats to the players that got the puck there and it feels good to get two goals for sure.”
Late in the frame, the pendulum of penalties that had swung in favor of Orlando for much of the first 38 minutes of play headed back in the other direction. An interference call on Bourke and a subsequent whistle on Monfredo for holding left the Solar Bears down two men for the final 1:03 of the second with a 46 second rollover into the third.
It was a huge opportunity for the Stingrays to get back into the game but they let it get away as the Solar Bears effectively killed off the two infractions.
South Carolina did finally get on the board at the 7:33 mark of the third when a defensive zone turnover landed the puck on the stick of Besse who beat Ingram to make it a 3-1 game.
The Stingrays had a second chance to work with an extended five-on-three advantage when a pair of overlapping penalties at the 10:48 and 10:52 points put Alex Schoenborn and Kevin Lohan in the box. Try as they might, the visitors were not able to set up and attack effectively until with four seconds remaining in the two-man advantage, Tad Kozun buried a rebound to pull the visitors within 3-2.
According to South Carolina Head Coach Spiros Anastas, those two five-on-three opportunities – or more specifically the failure of the first and the length of time it took on the second to score – had a huge impact on the outcome.
South Carolina goalie Parker Milner (35, white) peers around the screen set by Orlando’s Chris LeBlanc during Friday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“I think there were two key misses. It was that five-on-three [at the start of the third period] and then the next one. I know we ended up scoring [on the second one] but it took us way too long,” Anastas said. “We had no offensive zone possession [time], no time to get them on their heels. We couldn’t even get entries. When your best players are on the ice, you expect them to perform in big moments and they didn’t step up at that point. We didn’t generate any momentum from there so those two five-on-threes actually I thought were momentum killers.”
The visitors had one more chance on the power play with 5:37 remaining but only mustered two shots on Ingram. With 1:18 left in regulation, Anastas pulled Milner (33 saves) for an extra attacker but Orlando did everything it could to thwart the opportunity. An icing call on a long pass by the Stingrays that missed with 13.3 ticks left on the clock effectively killed any chance South Carolina had to find a game-tying tally.
After being unhappy with his team’s effort on Wednesday, Berehowsky was much more pleased with how the Solar Bears performed in game two.
“I think the energy was way better right from the start to the finish tonight. In the third I think we took too many penalties there and it caught up with us,” Berehowsky said. “I think the energy was way better than it was the other night. The other night I thought we just came out for ten minutes then we stopped. Tonight the guys played hard for I’d say most of the sixty minutes.”
Orlando’s Troy Bourke (2, black) battles for position with South Carolina’s Steve Johnson in front of goalie Parker Milner during Friday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
With momentum on their side, the Solar Bears now need to figure out a way to maintain it through four off days until game five. Thompson, when asked how that could be accomplished, said that it will be a day-by-day process.
“That’s a good question. We’re going to [have to] figure it out. We’ll see when we get there,” Thompson said. “We’re just going to take it day-by-day here and not really get too focused on what’s ahead. We’ll take it one day at a time and go out there and play one shift at a time, one period at a time.”
Notes: Final shots were 36-27 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears and Stingrays both went 1-for-6 on the power play in the game… In outshooting South Carolina 17-4 in the second period, Orlando tied a franchise record for fewest shots allowed in a period. The Solar Bears held Florida to four in the third period of an East Division semifinal game on April 17, 2015 after exactly a year earlier on April 17, 2014 holding the Cincinnati Cyclones to four shots in the second period of an Eastern Conference quarterfinal matchup… Referees Sean MacFarlane and Liam Sewell were calling their third game in three nights, having worked Wednesday’s game one in Orlando before driving down to Estero to call Thursday’s game one between Jacksonville and Florida prior to heading back to the City Beautiful on Friday… In roster moves, Orlando added forward Jonne Tammela and defenseman Matthew Spencer, both of whom were assigned to the Solar Bears by Tampa from AHL Syracuse. Tammela played for Mathieu Foget while Spencer dressed in place of Cody Donagher… South Carolina also had a change as the team signed goalie Evan Weninger to replace Adam Morrison who was called up by AHL Hershey.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.