ESTERO, FLA – Visitors to Germain Arena usually find the Florida Everblades a hard host to defeat. No team knows that better than the Orlando Solar Bears, who had yet to find success in four trips to southwest Florida this season. Friday night turned out to be no exception although the visitors did make the Everblades squirm a bit.
Goals by John McCarron, Zack Kamrass and Brendan O’Donnell in the first period and solid goaltending by Alex Nedeljkovic allowed the Everblades (41-15-2-3, 87 points) to edge Orlando (30-22-6-3, 69 points) 3-2 in front on an announced crowd of 4,835. With the victory, Florida once again claimed the Wawa Sunshine Cup, the trophy emblematic of the best ECHL team in the state of Florida.
The loss was especially damaging for Orlando as they lost ground in the race for third place in the South division as the Cincinnati Cyclones defeated the Alaska Aces 2-1, giving the Cyclones a three point lead in the standings. The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs with the fourth seed facing a first round series with Florida if the playoffs were to start now.
Coming into the contest needing to just about win out to secure a playoff spot, the Solar Bears found themselves down before most of the crowd had settled into their seats. Just 24 seconds after the opening face-off, a shot by Nelson Armstrong was stopped by Orlando netminder Ryan Massa. The rebound got away and John McCarron, who had bedeviled the team from Central Florida all season, fired it home for his 20th goal of the season and the early lead.
Getting behind the Everblades is never a good thing for an opponent; going down by two is even worse. That is what happened when Florida converted on its first power play of the game at the 9:25 mark of the opening frame. The puck pinballed around in front of the Orlando net and found its way out to Kamrass at the top of the left circle. Kamrass stepped into a hard slap shot that beat Massa for the defenseman’s fifth score of the year.
Another Orlando penalty late in the period became another nail in the visitors’ coffin when the Everblades struck again. This time it was O’Donnell who took a feed from Josh Wesley through the middle of the ice and nailed a one-time blast into the back of the net for O’Donnell’s team-leading 36th goal. It allowed Florida to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.
Despite being beaten three times in the first, Massa came out in the middle period and literally kept the Solar Bears in the contest. While his teammates were trying to figure out a way to score on Nedeljkovic, the Orlando goalie robbed Florida’s Matt Hatch not once but twice to keep the margin at three. The first came when Hatch took a stretch pass after coming out of the penalty box and bolted in alone only to see Massa turn him away. The second was on a quick-developing play in the slot that ended with the netminder flashing his right leg out to make the save.
Nedeljkovic, who earlier this season saw his first ever NHL game action, was sailing along until the final minute of the frame when the Solar Bears finally solved him. With just 17.4 seconds left before the break, Austin Block and Chris Crane drove into the Florida defensive zone. Block dropped a pass to Crane and headed for the front of the net when Crane hit his stick blade with a pass. Block’s redirect found its way past Nedeljkovic for Block’s 12th of the season.
Given new life by Block’s tally, the Solar Bears came out in the third period with a renewed purpose. They blitzed the Everblades early and drew within one goal when Block made a perfect cross-ice feed to Patrick Watling on the back side of the play.Watling buried the puck into the open side of the net past Nedeljkovic’s blocker glove for his 13th goal of the season at the 3:54 mark.
Orlando had two power play chances in the frame, one coming shortly after Watling’s score, but came up empty as Nedeljkovic (30 saves) came up big. He was especially good on the second Solar Bears man advantage, turning away Justin Buzzeo and Denver Manderson on grade-A opportunities with less than four minutes left in regulation.
Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky pulled Massa (25 saves) with about a minute left to get an extra attacker on the ice. Twice Nedeljkovic, who scored a goal earlier in the season, took a shot at the empty Solar Bears net with no success but it did not matter as he held off the visitors to secure the win.
Notes: Orlando’s power play, which has had difficulty with Florida’s penalty killers, went 0-for-4 in the contest while the Everblades finished 2-for-4… With the loss, Orlando fell to 2-7-1-0 against Florida this season (0-4-1-0 at Germain Arena). Since joining the ECHL, the Solar Bears are 26-39-3-1 against their in-state rivals… Charlie Millen, son of former NHL goalie Greg Millen, was signed to back-up Massa with Kasimir Kaskisuo reassigned to the AHL Toronto Marlies. Kaskisuo started the Marlies’ game Friday night agains tthe Binghamton Senators, making 28 saves to post a 4-2 victory for his second career AHL win… Orlando’s nine-game road trip continues Saturday night with another game against the Everblades at Germain Arena at 7 p.m. The Solar Bears will travel to Adirondack, Brampton and South Carolina during the trip.
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