ORLANDO, FLA – The last time the Orlando Solar Bears played in the ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs was the spring of 2015 when they met the Florida Everblades, losing in six games in the first round to their in-state rivals. Friday night at the Amway Center in front of a sellout crowd, the Solar Bears needed a victory over the Everblades to return to the post-season.
Justin Buzzeo (center), Joe Perry (left) and Taylor Doherty celebrates Perry’s first period goal Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Mission accomplished.
Five different players collected multi-point nights and goalie Ryan Massa set another franchise record as Orlando (36-25-7-3, 82 points) defeated Florida (45-21-2-3, 95 points) 5-3 in front of just the team’s second full house of 9,555 in ECHL franchise history. The victory, combined with a loss by the Cincinnati Cyclones allowed the Solar Bears to guarantee their fans at least two more games this season.
Orlando still has some work to do as it can jump over South Carolina into third place with a win Saturday night against the Everblades and a loss by the Stingrays at home to Cincinnati. If both teams win or lose in regulation, South Carolina would claim the third seed based on a tie-breaker.
“It’s awesome [to make the playoffs]. I think we have the best fans. We have the best organization. Joe [Haleski, Solar Bears owner/chairman] is the best owner in the league. I’ve got the best group of guys,” Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky said. “I have nothing to complain about. I’m pretty blessed and I’m pretty fortunate to be in the situation I’m in.”
In order to guarantee that the team’s playoff hopes would not come down to the final game, the Solar Bears had to exercise the memories of Wednesday’s 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the Everblades. The way the game began, it looked as if the visitors still had a mental stranglehold on the Orlando squad. Just 29 seconds after the opening face-off, Florida got on the board when off of an offensive zone draw went back to Kevin Raine at the point. Raine’s blast took a wicked skip and whistled over Massa’s left shoulder for the defenseman’s third goal of the season.
“Coming into the game, we were talking about how we had to be the ones who scored first tonight. They got a good shot off through the point through traffic and the db high [point defender] didn’t see it,” Massa said bout the game-opening goal. “We could have easily just turned it in and folded up but the guys responded with a lot of authority and answered back with three big goals. The guys kept doing the right things the rest of the way.”
That authortative response at the 5:44 mark of the first frame when Justin Buzzeo carried the puck into the Florida defensive zone along the right wing. He fired the disc across the crease where Joe Perry sent it into the open side of the net behind Everblades netminder Anthony Petersfor his 35th tally of the season.
Shortly after Massa robbed Curt Gogol with his catching glove, the Solar Bears went on the power play and cashed in twelve seconds into the advantage. A shot out high by Eric Baier was blocked but the carom bounced right to Taylor Doherty who sent a drive that got through to Peters who made the save. The rebound came out to the face-off circle where Milos Bubela quickly drove it home for his ninth of the year and eighth in a Solar bears uniform.
The lead doubled to 3-1 just 52 seconds later when Eric Faille got control of the puck just off the crease and attempted to thread a pass to Buzzeo on the other side. The puck never made it all the way through, hitting the skate of a defender and skidding across the goal line. Buzzeo was given credit for the score but acknowledged afterwards that it belonged to Faille.
“Actually Faillsy [Faille] got it. It just shot on net and hit off their d-man and went in,” Buzzeo said. “It was actually his goal so they probably should change it.”
With two minutes left in the stanza, tempers flared when the Everblades Dalton Smith got a bit too close to Massa, drawing the attention of Solar Bears defenseman Brenden Miller. A scrum ensued with both teams piling into the end boards. Smith received a fighting major and a game misconduct for taking both Miller and a second Solar Bear with gloves off. Miller got a roughing minor and Massa, who had left his crease to join in the mess, was also penalized, giving Florida a four-on-three power play.
The visitors took advantage of the situation as Brant Harris saucered a pass to former Solar Bear Bryce Aneloski who drilled a shot past Massa for his first goal in an Everblades uniform to cut the Orlando lead to 3-2.
“I’ve got to try to stay away from that as much as possible. I’ve got to remain calm,cool and collected back there for the guys in front,” Massa said about his penalty that lead to the Aneloski score. “Anytime you see your guy eating sucker punches like that in the corner, it’s pretty hard not to get involved. They ended up scoring on that penalty so looking back on it, it wasn’t the time or place for me to step in there.”
Thanks to the Smith major, the Solar Bears opened the second period with three minutes of power play time but failed to cash in. The momentum from the successful penalty kill turned into a game-tying score five minutes later when Aneloski got the disc to Brendan O’Donnell who skated into open space and rifled a wrist shot into the top corner. For O’Donnell, it was his team-leading 40th goal of the year.
Just shy of a minute later, the Solar Bears went back on the power play when Josh McCarron was called for interference. Orlando’s special teams made the Everblades pay when Chris Crane got the puck to Doherty and the big defenseman let loose with a wicked shot that zipped into the top right corner of the net for his third of the season.
The Solar Bears celebrating one of their five goals from Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Before the fans had settled back into their seats and the Solar Bears had finished their celebration, Gogol challenged rookie Mason Marchment and the pair dropped the gloves. Marchment got in a couple of good shots but Gogol, who has made a living this year at being an enforcer, showed the rookie a thing or two before the linesmen stepped in.
Neither team was able to score the rest of the way, allowing Orlando to take a lead of 4-3 into the final frame.
Florida, which had outshot the Solar bears 33-12 through two periods, came out like gangbusters in the third, putting all sorts of pressure on Massa and the Orlando defense. As the shots piled up, the second year netminder from the University of Nebraska-Omaha got stronger and stronger with every save he made.
With 1:43 remaining in regulation, Florida head coach Brad Ralph pulled Peters (13 saves) for an extra attacker. Orlando’s defense held and Crane capped off the night with an empty net goal from inside his defensive blue line with 1:14 to go, sending the crowd into a delirious frenzy as they sensed their team was about to give them more hockey to watch.
Massa finished the game with 47 saves in picking up his 22nd victory of the season to set a new franchise record, passing Garret Sparks in the process. Coming on the heels of an impressive rookie season a year ago, Massa said that he set goals for himself in the off-season and making the post-season is at the top of the list.
“This league, this level, it’s not easy. It’s not easy to get wins. Coming into this year after having a strong first year, I wanted to hit the 20-win mark, I wanted to take the team to the playoffs. I wanted the things we weren’t able to attain last year,” he said. “Making [the] playoffs was such a long term goal when you look at the preseason and the beginning of the year. Playing 72 games and being one of the final teams that can say that we get a chance to play for the Kelly Cup is a reward in itself. It speaks to the character of the guys in the [locker] room and the commitment to the process.”
For Buzzeo, who is getting a chance to play in the post-season after being traded to Orlando by Atlanta, he sees a lot of potential on the Solar Bears roster – enough to make a deep run in the playoffs.
“It’s a good team, a good group, a good organization. I didn’t hear anything but good things and I’ve seen it since I’ve been here,” he said. “I think we can go all the way. The coaches believe it. The owners believe it and I think all of us believe it.”
Notes: Florida finished the game with a 50-18 shot advantage… The Solar Bears finished 2-for-5on the power play while the Everblades went 1-for-2… Faille became the first Solar Bear to eclipse the 70-point mark in a single season… With two assists. Baier reached 100 ECHL helpers for his career… Perry two assists gave him 50 for his pro career… Before the game, the Solar Bears signed forward Ryan Moore from the Flint Firebirds of the Ontario Hockey League to a standard player contract… The first two home playoff games for the Solar Bears will be on Thursday, April 20th and Saturday, April 22nd. If necessary a third game is set for Sunday, April 23rd.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.