CINCINNATI, OH – The last time the Orlando Solar Bears were at the .500 mark in the standings, it was October 29th and they were about to host the Atlanta Gladiators in the second home game of the 2017-18 season. Since then, Central Florida’s favorite hockey team has been through a tough stretch of winless hockey but is experiencing a recent swing in a positive direction. In the last couple of weeks, the Solar Bears have begun to have a lot more to celebrate.
Thursday night, the celebratory vibes multiplied as Orlando (10-10-3-0, 23 points) got two goals and an assist from Kristian Pospisil and multi-point games from Jean Dupuy and J.C. Campagna as the visitors from the South defeated the Cincinnati Cyclones (12-8-1-0, 25 points) 5-3 in front of an announced crowd of 2,067 at the U.S. Bank Arena. With the win, the Solar Bears swept the two-game series with the Cyclones to bring their record on their current road trip to 4-2 as part of a stretch of 8-2-1-0 hockey over the last eleven games.
The win was a fitting cake topper to a milestone night for veteran forward Darryl Bootland. Bootland, who is in his 16th season of pro hockey, played in his 900th career regular season game, and celebrated in a way only he would: by getting into a fight protecting one of his teammates.
Playing with house money after downing the Cyclones on Tuesday, Orlando found itself struggling offensively through much of the first period like it did two days earlier. Cincinnati wasfiring shots at Solar Bears goalie Cal Heeter from the get go, building up a good number and keeping Heeter busy.
The Cyclones attack finally paid off with a little over five minutes left in the opening frame. During a power play, Justin Danforth slipped a pass across the blue line to captain Eric Knodel and the former Solar Bear made his old team pay with a blast that beat Heeter high on the blocker side for his sixth goal of the season. It was the lone goal in a period dominated by the home team to the tune of 10-3 on the shot clock.
Down by just one as the middle stanza began, the Solar Bears found their shooting touch thanks to their Slovakian sniper, Pospisil. At the 5:46 mark, he took a feed from Nolan Valleau and slid along the blue line looking for a shooting lane. Â When he found one, Pospisil let loose with a wicked shot that beat Cincinnati netminder Jason Kasdorf cleanly for the rookie’s sixth goal of the year. Less than three minutes later, Josh Winquist set Pospisil up for a slam dunk on the open side of the net with a perfect cross-ice pass.
Remembering how quickly Orlando had opened a four goal lead on Tuesday, the host Cyclones recovered quickly to tie the score at the 10:21 mark. A failed clearing attemptby the Solar Bears led to a shot from the point by Knodel that was redirected into the net by Brandon McNally for his fourth of the season.
Not too long after McNally’s tally, Cincinnati’s Devante Stephens clocked Orlando’s Martins Dzierkals with a hard hit. Bootland took exception to the hit and immediately sought out Stephens and started swinging. The pair each got in some good shots before Bootland finished off the fight with a couple more big blows before the linesmen jumped in.
Orlando’s power play was handed a golden opportunity at the 13:23 mark when with teammate Anthony Florentino already in the penalty box, McNally committed an infraction to give the visitors a two-man advantage. Patiently working the puck around, Pospisil made a centering pass to Chris LeBlanc who put the puck in the back of the net for his fifth of the year and a 3-2 Solar Bears lead.
Another defensive zone turnover cost Orlando late in the period when Mike Barrett ended up with the puck and an odd man situation. Using his teammate as a decoy, Barrett fired the disc past Heeter for his first score of the year and a tie score that lasted into the second intermission.
Both teams came out playing defensively as the third period began but it was the Solar Bears who made their opportunities count. At the 6:01 mark, Campagna got the puck to Dupuy in a prime scoring spot. With little room to work with, Dupuy fired a perfect wrist shot over Kasdorf’s shoulder into the top corner of the net for his seventh tally of the season.
Just past the midpoint of the stanza, Orlando got an insurance goal when defenseman Mike Monfredo laid into the rebound of a shot by Dupuy and zipped it past Kasdorf’s blocker glove for his second goal of the season.
Heeter, who had not been tested very much during the period up to that point, took on a feature role again in the final nine minutes. He came up with several key saves down the stretch and even when the Cyclones found a way to get the puck past him, the iron was once again friendly as a shot by Knodel glanced off both the post and crossbar befor e bounding away. Even when Bootland and Sean Zimmerman took penalties in the final five minutes, Heeter and the Solar Bears were just too strong defensively to give up anything else that would give Cincinnati any hope of a comeback.
Notes: For the second straight game, Cincinnati outshot Orlando, this time by a count of 30-19… The power plays came up dead even in the contest with each team connecting once in five attempts… The victory for Heeter, who finished with 27 saves, was his seventh straight winning decision, moving him closer to Cody Reichard’s franchise record of nine consecutive winning decisions set during the 2013-14 season. Along the way, he passed both Ryan Massa and Garret Sparks… With an assist on LeBlanc’s goal, Dzierkals extended his points streak to five games (2 goals, 6 assists)… Pospisil has three goals in his last two games… Dupuy’s game-winning goal was his second of the season, tying him with Winquist and Dzierkals for the team lead. His three points in the contest gave his two goals and three assists in the two games against Cincinnati… The Solar Bears will move on to Kalamazoo, Michigan to face the K-Wings Saturday night at the Wings Events Center at 7 p.m. before a stop in Fort Wayne, Indiana to faceoff with the Komets Sunday afternoon.
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