ORLANDO, Fla. – Playing well and stringing together a long run of wins is a difficult task. In hockey, the physical demands almost dictate that a team will run into a bad night – or day – every so often. Such was the case for the Orlando Solar Bears on Sunday afternoon.
Led by the two goal performance of Sean Berkstresser, the Greenville Road Warriors proved their name to be fitting as they edged the Orlando Solar Bears 6-5 in a shootout at the Amway Center. Berkstresser tied the game with 11.4 seconds left in regulation before his teammates connected on each of the first three penalty shots they took on Orlando goalie Mike Brodeur in the shootout.
Orlando%27s Scott Tanski (middle) shoots at Greenville goale Nathan Lieuwen as defenseman Steven Delsile (5%2C right) tries to block it (Photo courtesy of Orlando Solar Bears)
“I think they (Greenville) had a lot of jam. When they first came out they played well. We managed to battle back. We showed a lot of resilience, came back got a couple of power play goals,” Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky said. “I haven’t had a chance to look at all the video, but we didn’t compete for the full sixty minutes. We competed in parts of the game and then we just made some mental mistakes, which allowed them to get back into it.”
Greenville got a quick jump on the Solar Bears, notching two goals in the opening 7:10 of the game. Shayne Wiebe got things started when his blast from the point sailed over Brodeur’s shoulder just 4:38 in. A little over two minutes later, Berkstresser was the recipient of an ill-advised Orlando pass through the slot. He grabbed the puck and beat Brodeur high to the stick side to double the lead.
Playing from behind hasn’t been much of a problem for the Solar Bears and they once again proved it. Playing with the man advantage late in the period, Olivier Fortier banged a back-hander past Road Warriors netminder Nathan Lieuwen to trim the visitors lead to 2-1.
“The game is all about momentum shifts, momentum changes, the highs and the lows,” Greenville head coach Dean Stork said. “We came out strong in the first period. We knew we had to. We knew they hadn’t played in a couple of days so we came out strong and we won the first period.”
As well as Greenville played in winning the first, the Solar Bears returned the favor in the second. Veteran Kevin Baker, playing in his second game of the season, was in the right place at the right time to redirect a pass
Solar Bears captain Ryan Cruthers extende dhis consecutive games with a point streak to seven games in the loss (Phot courtesy of Orlando Solar Bears)
The Solar Bears lead grew to two when a late man advantage turned into yet another goal. Nick Petersen, who had returned from a call-up to Houston just hours before the game, got loose near the high slot and slid a perfect cross-slot pass to Cruthers down low. The Solar Bears captain took just long enough to settle the puck before snapping a tough angle shot into the back of the net to put Orlando up 4-2 heading to the third.
The Road Warriors trimmed the margin to one early in the third, when Marc-Olivier Vallerand picked off an errant Orlando pass and snapped a shot past Brodeur. Three minutes later, Petersen set up Rob Mignardi for his first goal in a Solar Bears uniform to restore the two-goal margin for the home team.
Orlando seemed destined for its fourth win in a row, but Greenville had other ideas. With just under three minutes remaining in regulation, Jordie Johnston was in the perfect spot to deflect a Rob Kwiet shot into the back of the net to bring the Road Warriors within 5-4. The visitors continued to press for the tying score and finally got it when from out of a sea of bodies, Berkstresser found the puck and enough room to light the lamp and send the game into overtime.
“We had some setbacks in the second period with some mismanagement on our special teams and they won the second period,” Stork said. “We came back out in the third and we won the third period so we won two out of three periods.”
Orlando went for the kill in the five-minute extra period, putting seven shots on Lieuwen (28 saves) but the 21-year old netminder stood tall. In the shootout, Wiebe, Francis Verreault and Brandon Wong all successfully scored while Lieuwen shut down Cruthers, Ryan Ginand and Baker to secure the win.
The Solar Bears now face their first extended road trip of the season starting Tuesday followed by three games in three days at the end of the week. Berehowsky said that he doesn’t see Sunday’s setback as anything more than a small bump in the road.
“Like I’ve always maintained, we’re going to be slow and steady,” he said. “We’re just going to keep working and working and working and hopefully things will start going our way again.”
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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