BRAMPTON, ONT – When the Orlando Solar Bears arrived in Brampton – the ECHL’s lone Canadian outpost – on Wednesday, the visitors knew that they would be facing a team that would not exactly be extending the same welcome that most tourists get when they arrive. By the time they head back across the border on Monday, the Solar Bears just might find themselves not welcome back to the Great White North.
Milos Bubela scored twice and added an assist while Brenden Miller, Chris Crane, Tony Cameranesi and Mason Marchment each tallied two points as Orlando (34-23-6-3, 77 points) thumped the host Brampton Beast (36-22-3-5, 80 points) 7-2 in front of an announced crowd of 4,052 at the Powerade Centre Sunday afternoon. Solar Bears goalie Ryan Massa, playing in his eighth consecutive game, made 42 saves to record his 20th win of the season, a new career high.
With the victory, Orlando pulled into a tie for second place with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in the ECHL’s South division. Orlando is listed in the third slot because Greenville has more regulation and overtime wins. The Solar Bears are two points ahead of fourth place South Carolina and three points clear of fifth place Cincinnati.
Looking to avoid being swept, the Beast opened the scoring in the first period by turning a tough situation into an advantage. While killing a double minor for high sticking to Willie Corrin, David Pacan separated the Solar Bears from the puck and fed it ahead to Brandon Marino. Marino drove into the Orlando defensive end and beat Massa for his 20th goal of the season.
Still on the same advantage, Orlando struck back quickly to even the score. It came sixty-three seconds later when Bubela put a shot on Beast goalie Zach Fucale who made the save but failed to control the rebound. Cameranesi was standing just off the crease and made quick work of popping the rebound past Fucale’s blocker glove for his 15th goal of the season.
The Solar Bears took the lead for good at the 12:27 mark when Miller made a perfect stretch pass to Darik Angeli who broke on an odd-man rush with Taylor Doherty. Using Doherty as a decoy, Angeli whistled a shot into the back of the net for his 13th of the year and 10th since joining the Orlando roster.
The visitors turned up the heat in the second frame, scoring three times to take control of the contest. The first came at 8:46 – just one second after a power play had failed to click – when Marchment made a cross-ice pass to Bubela who nailed a one-time blast that lit the goal light for his sixth of the season and fifth for the Solar Bears.
Late in the frame, some aggressive forechecking by Denver Manderson created a turnover in the Brampton end. Manderson took the puck and slipped a pass to Bubela who lasered a shot from the slot past Fucale for his second tally of the game. Thirty-two seconds later, defenseman Jon Jutzi jumped up into the play and threaded a pass from the left wing to the low slot area where Crane redirected it past the Brampton netminder for his 17th of the 2016-17 campaign and 14th in an Orlando uniform.
While his teammates were burning out the red light at the other end, Massa was his usual rock steady self between the pipes. He pitched a perfect middle stanza, stopping all eleven shots he faced to allow the Solar Bears to carry a 5-1 lead to the final twenty minutes.
Andrew D’Agostini replaces Fucale (19 saves) to start the third period but it did not seem to phase the Orlando team. It took the Solar Bears just 2:13 to solve the new goalie when Eric Faille’s shot was stopped but Joe Perry was there to put the puck home for his team-leading 33rd goal and a 6-1 lead.
Brampton showed some life when David Vallorani scored his 29th after some pinpoint passing set him up. He was able to beat Massa to the top right corner of the net to cut the margin to 6-2 but it would be as close as the Beast would get.
The Solar Bears closed out the scoring at the 6:10 mark on another heads-up play by a young player. Just as Miller was coming out of the penalty box, Cameranesi got a hold of the puck and made a long stretch pass that sent Miller in alone. Miller drove straight in and went low to D’Agostini’s glove side for his 15th of the season.
Despite building up an 18-10 shot advantage in the final frame, the Beast were not able to beat Massa the rest of the way as the Solar Bears cruised home with the win.
Orlando, which has now won three straight and is 4-2 on its current nine-game road trip, heads back to Glens Falls, New York on Tuesday to look for revenge for last week’s loss to the Adirondack Thunder. Game time at the Glens Falls Civic Center is set for 7 p.m.
Notes: The seven goals scored by the Solar Bears brings their season total to 244, a new high-water mark for the ECHL franchise… Neither team was effective with the power play as Orlando went 1-for-6 while Brampton finished 0-for-5… The Solar Bears finished their season series with the Montreal Canadiens’ ECHL affiliate with a perfect 6-0 mark. In two seasons, Orlando now holds a 9-0 record against the Beast… Orlando finished the game down one defenseman as Ty Stanton was injured late in the second period and did not return. No information on the injury was made available by the team after the game.
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