ORLANDO, FL – Holding a slim one goal lead heading to the third period of Wednesday night game against the Florida Everblades, the Orlando Solar Bears found themselves twenty minutes away for their second straight win over their archrivals from southwest Florida. In the end, twenty minutes was more than enough time for the Everblades to sting the Solar Bears one more time.
Orlando goalie Mackenzie Skapski made 23 saves in Wednesday night’s loss (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Three goals in the final period was all it took for Florida (32-9-1-4, 69 points) to down Orlando (20-21-5-1, 46 points) 3-1 in front of an announced crowd of 4,134 at the Amway Center. Rookie J.J. Piccinich scored the lone goal for the hosts and goalie Mackenzie Skapski stopped 23 of 25 shots but it was not enough to gain any ground in the Wawa Sunshine Cup series.
The loss, coming in the Solar Bears first of ten games at home during the month of February, was a frustrating way to begin a hard push toward a spot in the playoffs in a couple of months.
“I thought we played well in the first two periods. Then our puck management wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be [in the third period] and they came back and bit us,” Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky lamented following the contest. “We have to be better. We have to play a full sixty minutes of simple hockey and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Playing on home ice for the first time in two weeks, Orlando played Florida about as evenly as it could in the first period. Even with the advantage of a pair of power plays, the Everblades were not able to put a puck past Skapski, who was starting for the fifth consecutive contest while Cal Heeter recovers from an injury. The Solar Bears best opportunity of the opening frame came late in the period when Hunter Fejes broke in all alone on Florida netminder Martin Ouellette only to watch as the All-Star goalie took a goal away with a sprawling glove hand stop.
A carryover man advantage for the Everblades at the start of the second frame yielded nothing for the visitors but seconds after the expiration of the penalty, Florida appeared to have scored. As soon as the puck went in, referee Liam Sewell waived off  the tally, ruling that Skapski had been interfered with in the crease and keeping the game scoreless.
The tie was finally broken at the 6:18 mark of the period on a transition rush that turned into gold. Carrying the puck into the Everblades defensive zone, Piccinich sent the disc to Josh Winquist who began to drive toward the net. The move opened up space for Winquist to make a return feed to Piccinich who fired a perfect cross-body shot that zipped its way over Ouellette’s glove side shoulder and into the top corner. For Piccinich, it was his tenth tally of the season.
Solar Bears forward J.J. Piccinich (14, right) battles Florida’s Matt Berry for the puck (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“It was a fast break three-on-one. I was just kind of the late guy and Winquist was able to get it to me and I gave it right back and [he gave it] back again,” Piccinich said in describing the goal. “I was able to get it cross side and it went in.”
The goal seemed to spur on the Solar Bears as they picked up the offensive pressure, keeping Ouellette very busy with a total of 13 shots on net in the stanza. At the other end, Skapski was having a pretty easy go of it, facing just four Everblades shots and stopping all of them to carry a lead to the intermission.
“Skaps [Skapski] has been playing great. He’s giving us an opportunity to win every night,” Berehowsky said about his netminder.
Sensing a need to push the tempo, the Everblades came out quickly in the third and found the equalizer just 3:10 into the final twenty minutes. The play began with Stephen MacAulay leavinga drop pass for Mitchell Heard. As Heard received the puck, Joe Cox made a beeline to the top of the crease where Heard’s centering feed hit the hard charging forward and caromed in for his 14th goal of the season.
The score remained tied until just under a minute past the midpoint of the period when the visitors took advantage of a failed clearing attempt by the Solar Bears. The puck found Clark Seymour at the point and the burly blueliner blasted a shot that Matt Berry redirected past Skapski for his fifth of the season and a lead the Florida would not relinquish.
Orlando’s offense tried to fight back but the Everblades defense, led by Ouellette (29 saves) became stingy. Florida held the Solar Bears to just six shots on net in the final period. Berehowsky pulled Skapski with 1:11 left but a turnover at center ice led to an empty net tally by Quentin Shore to complete the scoring. The goal, which came with 1.9 ticks remaining, was Shore’s ninth of the 2017-18 season.
Skapski, who has come on of late to shore up the Solar Bears goaltending situation, said he is getting more and more comfortable with each start regardless of the outcome.
“I feel good, even in the couple of games we lost against South Carolina [on the road].I feel like I’m doing the right things and keeping the mistakes limited,” Skapski said. “Obviously tonight was a tough one going in 1-0 into the third period and to lose 3-1 was not fun. We’ll go back to practice tomorrow and keep working away and chipping away at the right things.”
The Solar Bears are off until Friday when they host the Wheeling Nailers in the first of a three game set at the Amway Center. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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.