FORT WAYNE, IN – Throughout their long road trip, the Orlando Solar Bears have been playing well enough to post a winning record. With very few exceptions, the Solar Bears have been in games until the very end. In order to do that, they have expended a lot of energy and spent more than their share of time riding busses.
All those miles and efforts had to catch up with them at some point – and that point was Sunday afternoon.
Led by Artur Tyanulin and Ryan Culkin who each posted a goal and an assist, the Fort Wayne Komets (13-6-2-0, 28 points) took advantage of a weary Orlando team to pick up a 5-2 victory in front of an announced crowd of 6,878 at the War Memorial Coliseum. Josh Winquist and Nolan Valleau picked up third period goals for the Solar Bears (10-11-4-0, 24 points) but by then the hill had become too steep for the visitors to climb.
Coming off a heart-breaking overtime loss to Kalamazoo the night before, the Solar Bears plled into Fort Wayne looking to get right back on the right track against the Komets who had yet to lose in the month of December, including a hard fought contest against Quad City on Saturday.
With the advantage of sleeping in their own beds, the Komets came out firing on Orlando goalie Mackenzie Skapski in the first period. Skapski, who was the tough luck recipient of the loss the night before, continually frustrated Fort Wayne’s skaters with saves in the early going.
When a team is working hard, the breaks seem to go its way and that is exactly what gave the Komets the game-opening goal. At the 9:50 mark during a power play, Jason Binkley lined up a shot from the point that missed the net and crashed into the end boards. In his effort to go from post-to-post to make a save, Skapski slightly overslid the post and the puck bounced off the back of his leg and into the net for Binkley’s third score of the season. Bobby Shea and Gabriel Dejardins picked up the assists on the play.
Less than three minutes later, Fort Wayne’s lead grew to two on another long shot. It came off the stick of Curtis Leonard. After taking a pass from Louick Marcotte, Leonard fired the puck at the net and it somehow slipped between Skapski’s legs for Leonard’s second of the season.
After outshooting Orlando 19-9 in the opening frame, the Komets continued their barrage in the first few seconds of the middle stanza. Just 18 seconds after the start of the period, Culkin lobbed the puck into the Solar Bears defensive zone. The disc managed to elude Skapski, finding Tyanulin who buried it into the open side of the net for his seventh of the year and a 3-0 lead.
The margin grew even bigger before the period was half over. At the 9:05 mark, Jamie Schaafsma got loose in the faceoff circle to the right of Orlando’s netminder, took a feed from Joseph Widmar and whistleda shot into the back of the net for his fifth and a commanding 4-0 cushion.
Despite outshooting Fort Wayne 13-11 in the period, the Solar Bears found themselves in a deep hole starting the final twenty minutes. Three minutes into the frame, the visitors finally caught a break. It came when Mason Baptista scored what appeared to be the Komets fifth goal of the game on a counterattack following a strong push by Orlando.
Before the puck was dropped, the goal judge signaled the referee that he needed to talk to the on-ice officials. As it turned out, during the Solar Bears attack, Winquist had slid the puck toward the goal line just as the net was lifted up from the back. In a bang-bang play, Winquist’s shot had gone across the line into the net and out the back in the blink of an eye. Following the discussion, Baptista’s tally was wiped off the board and Winquist was credited with his seventh goal of the season.
Soon after the Winquist score, the Solar Bears caught another break when back-to-back penalties to the Komets Cody Sol and Desjardins gave Orlando a five-on-three power play. The Solar Bears worked the puck around until Jean Dupuy set up Valleau for a drive that beat Fort Wayne goalie Garrett Bartus for his eighth goal of the year. It also represented a quick closing of the gap to just 4-2 with more than fourteen minutes remaining.
Orlando’s hopes for a continued comeback were dashed at the 7:22 mark when a shot by Widmar was blocked. The carom skidded out to the top of the faceoff circle to Skapski’s right where Culkin stepped into a blast that tickled the twine for his sixth of the season.
From there, Bartus had the Komets collective backs. Despite allowing the two early tallies, Bartus bounced back to turn away thirteen shots in the frame on the way to a 35 save effort in collecting the victory.
Notes: It was another game on the short end of the shot clock for the Solar Bears as the Komets controlled the play to the tune of a 41-37 advantage… Orlando’s power play struck for one goal in seven attempts while Fort Wayne went 1-for 3… Despite the loss, Skapski was again pretty solid, making 36 saves on 41 shots faced… Dupuy’s assist extended his point streak to four games (2 goals, Â 5 assists)… In addition to Tyanulin and Culkin, Desjardins, Marcotte and Widmar all posted two point games with a pair of helpers each… The Solar Bears welcomed back goalie Cal Heeter after he had spent Saturday backing up Calvin Pickard in the Toronto Marlies’ win over Laval… Orlando gets some time off to head to Norfolk, Virginia before meeting the Admirals in a pair of games to close the road trip on Friday and Saturday. The same Admirals will then head south for three games as the Solar Bears return home starting on December 20th.
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