CINCINNATI, OH – When asked, most coaches will say that long road trips are a chance for their team to bond and form a brotherhood that could be the difference between winning and losing. Picking up eight of a possible ten points on a five-game jaunt speeds up the process quite a bit in a good way.
Defenseman Eric Baier scored two special teams goals in a losing effort on Saturday (File photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
The Orlando Solar Bears finished a long-on-mileage trip Saturday night in Cincinnati, Ohio where the host Cincinnati Cyclones came away with a 4-3 victory in a shootout that took five rounds to decide. Defenseman Eric Baier scored two goals in the loss for Orlando (8-3-1-2, 19 points) who ended the five-game trek with a 3-0-0-2 mark and points in every game played.
At the start of the sojourn, Orlando was sitting in fourth place in the ECHL’s South division. By the time it was done, the Solar Bears found themselves in second place in the division just five points behind the Florida Everblades despite having played four fewer games.
Already guaranteed a winning record on the trip, Orlando had its eyes focused on finishing with a flourish against the Cyclones (9-3-1-1, 20 points). It was also a homecoming of sorts as Solar Bears goalie Rob Madore was back at the US Bank Arena for the first time after a successful run with Cincinnati that included a playoff Most Valuable Player award in 2014.
Cincinnati scored the lone goal of an evenly played first period. It came off the stick of Joe Wilson who beat Madore between the legs at the end of an odd-man rush 13:20 into the frame. Cyclones netminder Brandon Whitney stopped all six shots he faced in the period, allowing the home team to take the lead into the first intermission.
Two early penalties – both called on Cincinnati’s Chistiaan Minella – in the second period allowed the Solar Bears to start to crank up the offense. Late in the second advantage, Baier took a feed from Eric Faille and fired a shot from the point that eluded Whitney to tie the score. For Baier it was his third goal of the season and fourth straight game in which Orlando connected on the power play.
The tie lasted a little less than five minutes. Minella took a shot that missed Madore and the Solar Bears net. It took a long carom off the glass behind the net out to where Brandon Gracel was able to get an angle and fire the puck home for his second of the season. Whitney (24 saves) made the Gracel tally stand up in to the break when he denied Orlando’s Johnny McInnis at the end of a two-on-one break late in the frame.
The Solar Bears special teams made yet another key play to even the score again in the third. While killing a penalty, Baier saw an opportunity to step up and intercept a Cincinnati pass. Before Whitney knew it, the big defenseman had ripped a shot to the top corner on the goalie’s glove side for the team’s league-leading sixth short-handed goal.
Orlando took its first and only lead at the 13:14 mark of the final frame. T.J. Foster, who was the hero in Friday’s win at Evansville, got off a shot that was fended off by Whitney. The rebound came loose and Lindsay Sparks was in the right place to bang the puck home.
The host Cyclones were not phased by falling behind. With four minutes left in regulation, a miscommunication between two Orlando defenders became a turnover in the defensive zone. Zach Budish fed the puck down to teammate Jack Downing who slid it under Madore (21 saves) and into the back of the net to even the score at three. Neither team was able to find the golden goal in the remaining time.
Following an up-and-down overtime period that failed to yield a game-winning tally, the teams went to the shootout. Cincinnati’s Mike Hammond beat Madore in round two and would have been the clincher had it not been for Baier who kept the game going by lighting the lamp behind Whitney on Orlando’s third and final shot of the regulation three-rounds of penalty shots. The Cyclones’ Nick Huard and the Solar Bears’ Brady Vail traded goals in round four, sending the contest to round five where Gracel got the puck past Madore before Whitney denied Foster to seal the win for Cincinnati.
The Solar Bears head home to face South Carolina at the Amway Center on Tuesday before a quick trip north to Georgia on Black Friday to battle former Solar Bear Tyler Murovich and the Atlanta Gladiators.
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