ORLANDO, FLA – Returning home after a long road trip, the Orlando Solar Bears celebrated their co-existence with the NBA’s Orlando Magic by donning Magic-themed jerseys, hoping to continue the squad’s modest three-game winning streak at the Amway Center. Unfortunately, there was no magic to be found in the building they call home.
Six different players scored goals and goalie Alex Dubeau played large with 33 saves as the visiting South Carolina Stingrays (22-18-9-3) drubbed Orlando (28-20-4-1) 6-2 in front of a COVID-restricted crown of 3,150. Michael Joly and Aaron Luchuk scored once each for Orlando but it wasn’t near enough as South Carolina quickly bounced out to a two-goal lead in the first period and never looked back.
Orlando’s loss and an 8-1 victory by Jacksonville over Greenville tightened things up in the Eastern conference standings. The Swamp Rabbits maintained their hold on third place with a point percentage of .583, followed by fourth place Orlando at .575 and the hard charging Icemen in fifth at .560.
Having not played since Monday because of the postponement of Wednesday’s game in Jacksonville, the Solar Bears got some good news when forward Jerry D’Amigo and goalie Clint Windsor were activated off of the Commissioner’s Exempt list (COVID-related but not necessarily a positive test) but saw defenseman Nolan Valleau join captain Chris LeBlanc and forward J.J. Piccinich on the list.
Playing with twelve forwards and just five defensemen in front of goal Michael Lackey, the Solar Bears found themselves in a hole before the first period was nine minutes old. At the 6:48 mark just after South Carolina’s Brett Supinski came out of the penalty box, he jumped into a counterattack, gaining control of the puck and head-manning it to Tim Harrison. Harrison shaked into the Orlando end and proceeded to drift a pass across the slot. On the back side of the play, Justin Florek got behind the Solar Bears defense and directed the puck into the open side of the cage for his 13th goal of the season.
Exactly two minutes later, the Stingrays struck again when Supinski squeezed off not one but two shots on Lackey from in the low slot. The second rebound came out to Matthew Weis who fired it past Lackey for his fifth of the year and a 2-0 lead.
The Solar Bears did get plenty of opportunities to cut into the deficit before the first period ended. The best came with a little over six minutes left before the intermission when Joly got loose and in all alone on Dubeau. Joly made a fake and tried to go past the goalie’s right skate but Dubeau said no and the teams battled into the break whith nothing to show.
The contest started to settle in through the first part of the middle frame with Orlando gaining confidence by killing off a pair of Stingrays power plays. Less than twenty seconds following the second kill, South Carolina had Weis and Caleb Herbert bust in on a two-on-one rush. Weis held the puck and drew the defense and Lackey to his side before sliding a pass to Herbert, who buried it into the open side of the net for his seventh of the year to give the visitors a 3-0 lead heading to the final frame.
The Solar Bears broke through on Dubeau 46 ticks into the third period. Tyler Bird started the play with a steal at center ice. He quickly sent the puck ahead into the South Carolina end. Joly outhustled an opponent to the biscuit and while off-balance, slid it past Dubeau for his 11th of the season and third since joining the Solar Bears.
At 3-1 and feeling positive, Orlando watched as the floor – or in this case the ice – fell out from underneath it. The Stingrays went on a man advantage and hit pay dirt when they worked the puck around until Max Gottlieb came open in the high slot. He fired a quick shot that beat Lackey for his fifth of the year and a 4-1 lead for the visitors.
South Carolina then hit for a pair of tallies in a span of 22 seconds to effectively put the game out of reach. First at 3:27, Dylan Steman got his stick blade on a shot from Connor Moore, redirecting it home for his 12th. Then at 3:49, Cole Ully skated out from just below the goalline and made a buttonhook in the slot. He had plenty of time to pick the top corner on Lackey’s glove side and nailed it, scoring his 18th of the season to make it a 6-1 game. The goal also ended Lackey’s night as he was replaced by Windsor between the pipes.
With a 6-1 lead, the Stingrays went into coast mode because Dubeau was locked in. He held the Solar Bears at bay until the final seconds when during a power play, Luchuk banked the puck in off of the goalie’s left leg for his team-leading 22nd goal to close out the scoring.
Lackey finished with 16 saves on 22 shots on net in 43:49 in playing time, suffering the loss along the way. Windsor faced only two shots in his 16:11 of work and stopped both. South Carolina went 1-for-4 on the power play while Orlando finished 1-for-3.
The two teams will meet again Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Amway Center.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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