ORLANDO, FLA – On a night filled with emotion, the Orlando Solar Bears expected to turn that sentiment into the fuel the team needed to start the 2016-17 ECHL season on the right note. Unfortunately for them, the visiting Florida Everblades thought otherwise about their hosts’ plans.
The Everblades, led by a balanced scoring attack and solid goaltending from netminder Anthony Peters, edged the Solar Bears 3-2 in front of an announced crowd of 9,237 at the Amway Center Saturday night. Despite the loss, the Solar Bears made it a memorable night by honoring the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in words, actions and a sizeable financial donation to the charity helping the victims and their families.
“I think there was a lot of good and I think there was a lot to work on. For me, I think the most positive thing was that we saw some good signs and I think we are a much better team than we played for the most part,” Orlando head coach Anthony Noreen said in the post-game press conference. “There’s obviously a lot to work on. It’s a great game for us to go back and watch the video and show some teaching points to these guys that we can grow from.”
The emotion of the pre-game ceremony was felt throughout the building but once the opening face-off came, the fact that the Solar Bears (0-1-0-0) were playing their first game while the Everblades (3-0-0-0) were on the ice for the third time was just as evident. The visitors seemed to be much smoother handling the puck while the home team was still trying to find its rhythm.
Orlando starting goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo, who joined the team less than 48 hours before taking the ice, withstood the initial Everblades push, buying a little more time for his teammates. His early work was rewarded when rookie Chase Witala saucered a perfect pass from the goal line across the low slot to fellow rookie Nikolas Brouillard who blew a shot past Peters’ glove side for the Solar Bears first goal of the season.
Rookie defenseman Nikolas Brouillard scored his first professional goal Saturday night (Photo courtesy of G. Bassing and F. Medina/Orlando Solar Bears)
“I think it was a nice pass by Chase all the way across [the slot]. I was in a good place at the right moment,” Brouillard said about the play that led to his first professional goal. “I just shot it low mitt (glove side). It was a petty good memory for me.”
The Everblades accepted the challenge and bounced back 39 seconds later. Brenden O’Donnell did a lot of the heavy lifting on the play, bringing the puck into the Orlando defensive end. As he moved toward the slot area, he found sniper Mike Aviani behind the Solar Bears defense and went low to Kaskisuo’s stick side to tie the score 4:14 into the opening period.
Florida held the advantage in shots on net for much of the first frame but Orlando did have its moments of pressure on Peters(26 saves). Still, the teams remained deadlocked at 1-1 at the intermission.
Having a quick strike capability has long been a hallmark of the Everblades, whether under former coach Greg Poss or new bench boss Brad Ralph, who took over the reigns during the off-season. Ralph’s troops took the lead for good just 13 seconds into the middle frame when Brant Harris found new teammate John McCarron alone in the face-off circle to Kaskisuo’s right. McCarron wasted no time in zipping a shot home and stunning the home crowd in the process.
Seconds later, Florida found itself on the power play and it cashed in during the waning seconds of the man advantage. Matt Berry was in the right place to collect the rebound of a shot by Levko Koper (two assists in the game) and popped it into the back of the net to put his team up by two less than three minutes into the period.
The Solar Bears began to dig in and got themselves back in the contest with some speed and good transition hockey. Brouillard sent T.J.Foster flying out of the Orlando end on a mini-odd man rush. Given enough room, Foster calmly skated into the circle to Peters’ right and whistled a shot to the top corner on the goalie’s left to cut the lead to 3-2.
“There was a chip right at our blueline. I got around their defense and it was just a race for a two-on-one,” Foster said. “I didn’t have a lot of time to make a pass across so I just let one go and I was lucky enough that it went high glove.”
At the point that Foster scored, there was still more than fourteen minutes left in the second period and all of the third stanza remaining. Even though the Solar Bears and Everblades were finding scoring chances, neither Kaskisuo nor Peters were willing to allow another shot past them. That trend followed into the final period where Orlando found even more opportunities but Peters refused to yield.
To his credit, Kaskisuo played very well after allowing the three goals. For the game, he recorded 34 saves in his inaugural ECHL start.
“It was nice to get some playing time for sure. It’s been a week or two since the last exhibition game in Toronto with the Marlies,” Kaskisuo said. “It was fun. The atmosphere was great down here in Orlando. [I faced] lots of shots for the first game so that will help [me] moving forward.”
Foster said that given time, he expects the Solar Bears to have the same kind of flow and chemistry on the ice as the Everblades exhibited on Saturday.
“Yeah they played two games [last weekend] but we were raring to go. We were excited to have the game on home ice,” Foster said. “I just think that they might have a little more chemistry as a team but that’s going to come with us with a little more practice time and games. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get the win but [we’ll] get a good week of practice and start next week with a three [games] in three[days].”
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