ESTERO, FL – In an effort to change his team’s luck, Orlando Solar Bears head coach and general manage Drake Berehowsky spent the first two days of 2018 making changes to his roster, bringing in a pair of players to hopefully boost his squad’s goal scoring capabilities. Part of the alterations were on display Wednesday night when the Solar Bears went back down to southwest Florida to take on the Florida Everblades.
As it turned out, the host Everblades were not impressed by the new look Orlando team.
Led by balanced scoring and a 26-save effort by goalie Callum Booth, Florida (23-5-1-2, 49 points) continued its domination over its rival from Central Florida, handing the Solar Bears (13-16-4-1, 31 points) a 4-1 loss in front of an announced crowd of 6,181 at Germain Arena. The victory was the Everblades second straight over Orlando and fifth in six meetings this season.
Kristian Pospisil scored the lone goal for the Solar Bears, who avoided being shutout with a five-on-three power play score in the third period. Over the past two games, the Everblades have outscored Orlando 11-2 after the Solar Bears defeated Florida 5-3 on December 29th.
The visitors controlled much of the opening period, keeping Florida from getting its first shot on goalie Cal Heeter until the first frame was halfway done. The dominance came mostly at even strength as the Solar Bears power play failed to record a shot on Booth on back-to-back opportunities in the front half of the stanza.
Heeter, who along with defenseman Jeff King had just returned from a callup to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, had a rocking chair period that saw Orlando hold the Everblades to a season low four shots on goal in the opening period.
Finding themselves in a scoreless tie as the second period began, the Solar Bears opened up with a quick three-shot salvo but Booth was solid and stopped all three drives. Booth’s work between the pipes allowed his teammates to get their bearings and at the 5:30 mark, Tyler Ganly redirected a pass from Justin Kea past Heeter for his second goal in as many games against the Solar Bears and his second of the season.
The middle frame provided much more offense than the first did as the teams combined for 24 shots on net. The Everblades put 16 attempts on Heeter and the Orlando goalie was holding his own while keeping it aone-score contest until when on a late power play, Mitchell Heard – himself just back from a callup to Charlotte – danced his way to the top of the slot and whistled a shot into the back of the net for his 11th of the season and a 2-0 Florida lead after two.
Orlando’s hopes for a third period comeback took a hit just eleven seconds into the final frame when Michael Kirkpatrick netted his 14th of the season off of assists from Stephen MacAulay and Matt Mackenzie.
Things between the two rivals got heated with five minutes gone in the stanza as the bad blood that exists boiled over. It started with Solar Bears captain Sean Zimmerman and Heard tangling behind the play. Everblades defenseman Keegan Kanzig got involved as did Orlando forward Joe Perry. It took several minutes for the game officials to regain control and even longer to dole out penalties that included a double minor for roughing to Zimmerman, a single minor to Kanzig, fighting majors to Heard and Perry and culminating with continuing altercation misconducts to Zimmerman, Heard and Kanzig. A couple of minutes later, Heeter and Florida’s Brett Bulmer nearly ignited things again when the pair engaged as the goalie was heading to the bench on a delayed penalty.
Florida put the final nail in the coffin at the 11:38 mark of the period when Joe Cox stole the puck at the end of a penalty kill to start a two-on-none break. Cox held the disc and made a backhand fake before going to his forehand and sliding it home for his tenth of the year.
All that was left for the Everblades was to try to get the whitewashing for Booth. That task became difficult when overlapping penalties gave the Solar Bears 53 seconds of two-man advantage time. Orlando spoiled the party when Hunter Fejes, who was acquired from Wheeling as part of a three-team trade on Monday, put the puck on the stick of Pospisil and the Toronto prospect ripped a shot past Booth for his ninth of the season. King also picked up a helper on the score.
There was still over four minutes left in regulation but the Solar Bears could not find another score as Booth and the Everblades slammed the door shut for the victory.
Notes: The teams each recorded 27 shots in the game… Orlando’s power play went 1-for-7 in the contest while Florida’s man advantage units finished the contest 1-for-3… The Solar Bears played Wednesday’s game without Darryl Bootland, who was suspended for the contest for an aggressor infraction that happened in last Saturday’s contest… Fejes, who was Wheeling’s leading scorer before being dealt, came to the Solar Bears in exchange for forwards Michale Turner and Chris Francis. Francis had been acquired earlier in the day on Monday from Quad City to complete a deal that sent forward Tristain King to the Mallards in September… Orlando also announced that it had signed veteran forward Kale Kerbashian Wednesday morning and had released defenseman/forward Mackenzie Braid… The Solar Bears have Thursday off before beginning a three games in three days set with the Jacksonville Icemen that will see Orlando head up to Jacksonville for contests on Friday and Saturday nights before the teams return to Orlando for a meeting on Sunday afternoon.
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