ALLEN, TX – An afternoon game following on the heels of a night game is usually not what teams want to face, especially when the loss the night before was a tough one to take. However, sometimes it is better to get right back on the ice and work hard to erase the bad memory.
That was exactly what the Orlando Solar Bears had in mind Sunday afternoon and it worked to perfection.
Josh Winquist scored his first goal in a Solar Bears uniform 3:34 into overtime to lift Orlando (2-1-0-0, 4 points) to a 4-3 victory over the host Allen Americans (3-0-1-0, 7 points) in front of an announced crowd of 2,853 at the Allen Event Center. Chris Crane scored his first two goals of the season to lead the visiting Solar Bears to their second win in extra time in the team’s first three games.
Winquist’s game-winner was a great individual effort as he carried the puck into the Allen end along the right wing boards and cut to the net. Once in front, he avoided a poke check attempt by Americans netminder Stephon Williams by shoveling the puck past the goalie and firing into the wide open net to end the contest.
For the first time this season, the Solar Bears opened the scoring in a game thanks to some heads up play. Coming out of the penalty box after serving a penalty, Orlando’s Matias Cleland stole the puck at his defensive blue line and sped up ice with an American defender on his heels. He drove straight at Williams and fired a shot that beat the netminder for his first score of the season.
Cleland’s tally came not too long after Allen’s Zach Hall was denied by Orlando goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo on a penalty shot. Solar Bears defenseman Alexandr Mikulovich was ruled to have impeded Hall from behind on a break in and his free attempt caught iron as Kaskisuo covered the net well enough to force the errant shot.
The Americans answered back three minutes later when on an odd-man rush, Allen’s Tanner Eberle fed Alex Schoenborn who let loose with a shot from the face-off circle that beat Kaskisuo low to the stick side at the 8:19 mark. The score was Schoenborn’s second of the season.
Late in the opening period, the Solar Bears regained the lead. Just as an Americans penalty was expiring, Max Novak found Crane in the low slot and the veteran forward ripped a shot into the open side of the net for his first of the season.
Allen’s power play, which had connected for the first time Saturday night, got on the board again early in the second frame. Casey Pierro-Zabotel was cruising through the front of the net when Peter MacArthur fired a shot that Kaskisuo stopped. The rebound fell right to Pierro-Zabotel’s stick and the crafty forward backhanded it over Kaskisuo’s left leg and in for his third goal of the year.
The middle stanza was controlled for the most part by the host Americans as they built a 14-5 shot advantage during the first thirteen minutes of the period. Kaskisuo, coming off his first start for the Solar Bears Saturday night, made save after save following the goal, giving Orlando the opportunity to find its offensive legs. A total of 27 shots were recorded between the two teams in the period but the only score belonged to Allen as the squads went to the final frame deadlocked at 2-2.
Crane gave Orlando its third lead of the contest 21 seconds into the third. Defenseman Nolan Valleau started the sequence with a shot from the point that was blocked in front. Novak grabbed the loose puck and shoveled a pass to Crane in the slot and he sniped a shot past Williams.
The lead lasted just shy of eight minutes before Allen’s special teams struck again. This time it was David Makowski who did the honors, firing a shot from the blue line that found its way through traffic and past Kaskisuo for a power play tally that evened the score at three.
Williams, who made 31 saves as the replacement for Riley Gill who was injured Saturday night, made a huge save on Crane with just under seven minutes left in regulation to keep the score tied. At the other end,Kaskisuo, who finished with 35 saves, was matching his opponent stop for stop to send the game to overtime.
Orlando dominated the shot clock in the extra period, putting up five while Allen failed to record a shot. Williams kept the contest going when he denied Solar Bears defenseman Jeff King on a clean breakaway but not too long after Winquist played the hero for the visitors.
Notes: Orlando finished the night 0-for-6 on the power play, bringing its three game numbers to 0-for-21 with the man advantage. Allen went 2-for-7 on the power play… The Solar Bears, who lost defenseman Alex Gudbranson during the first period Saturday night, finished Sunday’s contest a man short as rookie forward Kristian Pospisil took what was believed to be a high hit in the opening frame on Sunday. He went to the locker room and did not return… Orlando will fly back to the City Beautiful to start preparing for its home opener on Saturday against the Atlanta Gladiators at the Amway Center. The Gladiators, who have yet to win so far this season, will stop in Jacksonville on Thursday before hitting Orlando for a pair of games.
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