NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Looking for revenge for Saturday night’s loss, the Orlando Solar Bears hit the ice at the North Charleston Coliseum on Sunday afternoon in search of their fourth win in five meetings against the South Carolina Stingrays. After falling behind in the first period, the Solar Bears still had confidence that they could stage a comeback like they did Friday night.
Orlando did manage to close the gap but this time it couldn’t pull off a victory.
Cole Ully had a goal and three assists and Dan DeSalvo kicked in a goal and two helpers as the host Stingrays (17-13-6-2) held on for a 4-3 win over the Solar Bears (20-15-3-1) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,060. Goalie Hunter Shepard made 38 saves including 15 in the final frame to allow South Carolina to pull within .011 in point percentage of Orlando for the fourth and final playoff spot.
Tristin Langan, Nolan Valleau and Jerry D’Amigo each scored once for the Solar Bears while goalie Clint Windsor stopped 27 shots including a third period penalty shot to give his team a chance.
Both Windsor and Shepard were rock solid for the first 17 minutes of the first period, matching save for save. It wasn’t until the 17:25 mark that either team made a dent on the scoreboard when South Carolina lit the lamp. On a transition rush, Ully drove the near boards and found just enough room to slip a pass to Andrew Cherniwchan. Although he was fairly well covered, Cherniwchan was able to get enough space to rip a wrist shot past Windsor from the slot for his seventh goal of the season.
Ten seconds after the tally, the Stingrays went on a power play and proceeded to double their lead. Fifty seconds into the advantage, Ully found a cross-ice seam and fed DeSalvo on the backside. As the Solar Bears defenders turned their attention to him, DeSalvo made a pass to Justin Florek who was wide open at the top of the crease. Florek one-timed the feed into the back of the net for his eighth and a 2-0 lead at the intermission.
Orlando was determined to not let the game get away and cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 4:53 mark of the second. Tyler Bird carried the puck into the Stingrays end along the boards and found Anthony Repaci cutting through some space near the slot. Repaci, seeing his room to maneuver shutting down, spun and fed Langan who had crossed in behind. Langan wasted no time, one-timing the puck past Shepard’s catching glove for his 12th of the season.
Not wanting to allow the Solar Bears to capitalize on their newly found momentum, the Stingrays struck right back with their third goal of the game 48 seconds later. Ryan Cook sent a stretch pass into the Orlando end of the ice. Ully used his speed and physicality to lose a Solar Bears defender, gain control of the puck and beat Windsor to the stick side for his 13th tally of the season. It put South Carolina back up by two at 3-1 and was where the score stood heading to the final frame.
Orlando pulled back within one early in the third period. Coming out on a two-on-two foray, Valleau jumped up into the play as a third. Joseph Garreffa, who had the puck, went cross-ice to Valleau who skated into the faceoff circle to Shepard’s right and fired a shot that got past the netminder for his third of the year just 53 ticks into the stanza.
At the 3:45 mark, Orlando went on a penalty kill and had a golden opportunity to even the score when captain Chris LeBlanc broke in alone but Shepard made the save. It was important because just under a minute later, the Stingrays notched their second man-advantage score of the afternoon. It came when after a rush by DeSalvo that created a shot that Windsor stopped, a clearing attempt by the Solar Bears went right to Ully who quickly fed DeSalvo who had circled the net and was wide open on the other side. Before Windsor could recover, DeSalvo deposited the puck in the cage for his ninth to make it 4-2.
Just before the midpoint of the period, while killing a penalty South Carolina’s Dylan Steman got in behind the Orlando defense for a chance but was hooked from behind. Steman was awarded a penalty shot but Windsor came up with a huge save to keep it a two-goal game.
With a little over four minutes remaining in regulation, Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky pulled Windsor for an extra attacker. Orlando was able to press the issue and scored when D’Amigo redirected a shot by Aaron Luchuk on net. Shepard made the stop but the puck went airborne and D’Amigo batted it home for his eighth to pull the visitors to within 4-3. It was as close as Orlando would get as Shepard and his teammates held off the Solar Bears to collect the victory.
The Solar Bears are off until they start a huge three-game set against the Florida Everblades starting Thursday night at the Amway Center. South Carolina gets back on the ice on Wednesday when it hosts the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in the first game of a four-game series.
Notes: Final shots were 41-31 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-2 on the power play while the Stingrays went 2-for-4… Both Bird and Repaci extended their point streaks to four games while Langan moved his streak to three games… Steman’s penalty shot was the third a Solar Bears goalie has faced this season. Garret Sparks faced the other two, stopping a try by South Carolina’s Cherniwchan on January 31st but getting beat by Florida’s Michael Huntebrinker on February 5th… The Solar Bears finished the month of March with a 7-5-0-1 record.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.