ORLANDO, FLA – With an announced sellout crowd in the Amway Center and the game televised locally, the Orlando Solar Bears hoped to start the 2019-20 ECHL regular season with a resounding victory. Instead, they fell behind early and never quite recovered.
Led by a balanced offense, the visiting South Carolina Stingrays spoiled Orlando’s opening night extravaganza by coming away with a 4-2 victory in front of an announced crowd of 9,049. Tom Parisi, Casey Bailey, Mark Cooper and Matthew Weis all lit the goal light for South Carolina while Andrew Cherniwchan and Dan DeSalvo notched a pair of assists apiece.
Orlando goalie Spencer Martin (30, purple) and defenseman Mike Monfredo battle South Carolina’s Cam Askew during Saturday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The loss overshadowed a big debut by forward Ivan Kosorenko who tallied both goals for the Solar Bears during a late comeback run that fell short. Goalie Spencer Martin, who was also making his initial appearance in an Orlando jersey, recovered from a slow start to post 31 saves in the contest.
“We didn’t play as good as we wanted to. I thought we played slow. I thought we had too many turnovers,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said when asked to assess the game. “It’s not the Solar Bears way of playing hockey.”
The last time the two teams played was during the first round of last season’s Kelly Cup playoffs. For the second straight year, the Solar Bears handled their northern opponents easily to move on to the South Division finals.
Saturday night was a different story.
While the home team seemed to be trying to find itself, the visitors from the Palmetto State looked composed and on the same page. The solid puck movement led to the game’s opening goal when Cherniwchan fed DeSalvo in the high slot with a pass. Cooper went for the crease and was waiting when DeSalvo sent the puck his way, sending it past Martin at the 4:39 mark of the opening frame. For the former member of the Kansas City Mavericks, it was his first goal of the year.
Just under six minutes later, the Stingrays doubled their lead when Bailey got loose in front of the Orlando net. He had just enough room to collect the rebound of a shot by Cole Ully and slide it home for his first of the season, drawing grumbles from the large, mostly partisan crowd.
Unlike South Carolina, Orlando’s play at both ends of the ice just was not what Berehowsky and the fans expected from a roster that boasted twelve returners from last year’s squad. The Solar Bears struggled to muster scoring chances on Stingrays’ netminder Parker Milner on offense while defensively they were mistake-prone. The only thing that was working was the penalty killing unit that easily denied the visitors twice while allowing just one shot on Martin.
Solar Bears forwards Ryan Lohin (23, purple) and Tristin Langan (8) wait for the puck to head toward the net as South Carolina goalie Parker Milner (35, white) and Kristofers Bindulis (23) defend the net (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“I think we just didn’t play the right way for the most part,” Orlando forward Brent Pedersen said. “I think the work ethic was there at times – which was positive – but we weren’t playing the right way. We weren’t doing the right things that we’ve been practicing.”
A penalty to the Stingrays’ DeSalvo early in the middle frame gave the home team a chance to get right back in the game but the power play put just two shots on net that Milner handled. Midway through the stanza, the Solar Bears killed off a third South Carolina man advantage but seconds after their success, the Stingrays connected when Parisi sent a shot from the top of the faceoff circle to Martin’s right that slid past a screen by Bailey and into the far side of the cage. Parisi’s first of the season put South Carolina up by three.
After outshooting its opponent by a count of 10-9 in the second, Orlando felt like it was primed for a comeback in the final frame. That comeback had to wait as the Stingrays went in for the kill, putting on a hard push for a fourth tally. When Solar Bears defenseman Taylor Doherty took a four minute double minor for high sticking, it seemed like that added insurance score was coming. It did come, but not without some controversy.
A little bit shy of halfway through the power play, South Carolina’s Weis found the puck on his stick at the base of the circle to Martin’s right. He fired high and past the goalie’s shoulder but a split second later,the puck was bouncing out from behind Martin and away from the net. Referee Maxime Primeau signaled goal, sending the play to video review – a rule just added for this season by the league. Despite the protestations of the Solar Bears and the crowd who intently watched the jumbotron hanging at center ice, the call on the ice was left to stand and the Stingrays had a 4-0 lead.
“I’m not making any conclusions here or anything like that,” Berehowsky said when asked how the call impacted the rest of the contest. “Everybody saw it and I don’t understand what everybody was looking at but shouldn’t have impacted anything. We should be able to come out and compete harder that we did.”
How much that fourth goal played into the outcome began to unfold a minute later when South Carolina’s Cooper drew a four-minute double minor for roughing in a tussle with Orlando’s Colby McAuley. During the ensuing power play, Kosorenkov, one of five players sent to the City Beautiful by the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, grabbed the puck along the end boards and swooped in front. Once there he fired high to the far top corner past Milner’s right shoulder. Kosorenkov’s first tally was also reviewed and called good, bringing forth a sarcastic response from the fans who felt that it was much clearer a score that Weis’ a few minutes earlier.
With 3:41 remaining in regulation, Kosorenkov struck again. He started the play with a steal in the Stingrays’ defensive end and sent the puck across the slot to Pedersen. Pedersen waited for a beat or two before returning the disc to his teammate who buried it into the open side of the net to trim the South Carolina lead to 4-2.
Orlando’s Colby McAuley (85, purple) and Ivan Kosorenkov (10) eye the loose puck along with South Carolina’s Tariq Hammond (3, white) and Parker Milner during Saturday’s second period (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Berehowsky pulled Martin with 3:28 to go and although his troops did pin the Stingrays in, they just could not find a third goal to further the comeback attempt.
When asked about positives to take from the night, Solar Bears Captain Mike Monfredo said that one of them was the team’s effort down the stretch that closed the gap and gave the fans hope for a stirring comeback.
“You could see that we had a little bit more pep in our step when we scored that first one. It was just too late in the game to actually get anything started. I think there was about ten minutes left – and you could see that jump and everyone was excited,” Monfredo said. “We’ve got to keep that up and hopefully carry it over to [the] next game.”
Berehowsky was asked how long he thought it might take for his team to find that chemistry that will make it a strong contender. While he did not want to put a time frame on it, he did express confidence that much like a season ago that it will happen.
“It’s too hard of an answer to give. Last year, it took us a long time but we came out the other side and this year we’ll just keep working,” Berehowsky said. “That’s my job and [assistant coach Jared] Staalzy’s job is just to keep teaching and teaching. They’ve [players] got to want to learn and the guys who want to learn and want to learn and the guys who want to learn will be able to get this thing and get it turned around fast.”
Notes: Final shots were 35-22 in favor of South Carolina… Both teams scored once with the man advantage, the Stingrays doing it in five tries while the Solar Bears had two chances. Both tallies came during double minor penalties… The last time Orlando won its home opener was 2015 when it defeated Greenville 6-3… Marcus Vela, one of the other players sent to Orlando by San Jose, picked up his first assist in a Solar Bears uniform on Kosorenkov’s first score… Orlando is off until next Friday when the Norfolk Admirals come to the Amway Center.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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