ORLANDO, FLA – After a loss Saturday night, the Orlando Solar Bears were happy to get back on the ice Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center with a chance to split their set with the Atlanta Gladiators. Unfortunately for them, the Gladiators – especially the half dozen former Solar Bears on the visitors’ roster – were also ready.
Mike Monfredo celebrates his first goal as a Solar Bear Sunday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Phil Lane scored twice and former Orlando defenseman Taylor Doherty provided the game-winning tally as Atlanta (3-4-0-0) finished a weekend sweep with a 4-2 win over the Solar Bears (2-3-0-0) in front of an announced crowd of 4,728. Mike Monfredo and Nolan Valleau each notched their first goals in an Orlando uniform but it was not enough to produce a victory.
The effort by both teams on the defensive side of things was improved from Saturday’s old west style shootout but once again it was the little things that did the host Solar Bears in.
“I honestly thought we were going to win at some points. We had some tough times in the defensive zone but overall I thought we played well,” Valleau, one of several newcomers to the Orlando roster, said following the game. “Sometimes in hockey you just don’t get the bounces.”
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, the Solar Bears controlled a good bit of the play in the first period but thanks to solid goaltending from the Gladiators – on Sunday it was Dan Vladar – kept the visitors in the contest.
Vladar’s work early allowed his teammates to open the scoring again. On Sunday, the goal came 9:46 in as Thomas Frazee stole the puck in the Orlando defensive zone and slipped a pass to a wide open Lane. Lane took a quick look and lasered a shot past the catching glove of Solar Bears goalie Cal Heeter for his fourth goal of the season.
Lane’s second goal of the two-game series was the lone score of the opening frame as Heeter and Vladar went into lockdown mode. The pair of netminders combined to turn away 22 of the 23 total shots, many coming from point blank range.
Orlando amped up its attack in the middle stanza, putting pressure on the Gladiators and Vladar in hopes that the Boston Bruins prospect would crack. It took roughly fifteen shots before the Solar Bears finally broke through when Solar Bears forward Josh Winquist laid a perfect cross-slot pass to Monfredo on the back side of the play. The big defenseman wasted no time in knocking the puck into the open side of the net for his first goal of the year.
“It was just a great pass by Winquist seeing me on the back door,” Monfredo said. “All I had to do was really tap it in.”
Nolan Valleau scored his first goal in an Orlando uniform Sunday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Despite a wide advantage in shots during the period in favor of the Solar Bears, it was Atlanta that held the lead at the break. With a little over a minute to go before the intermission, Lindsay Sparks – another of the one-time Orlando players – drove a shot from near the boards that skidded its way between Heeter’s legs. The puck squeezed its way into the crease where Lane beat a Solar Bears defender to it and pushed the disc across the goal line for his second of the afternoon.
The host Solar Bears evened the score for the second time at the 6:08 mark of the third period. Veteran forward Mike Vaskivuo made the key play, finding a passing lane and putting the puck on the tape of Valleau’s stick. Valleau proceeded to pick his spot and zipped a shot past Vladar’s glove side for his first tally with Orlando.
“It was just kind of a broken play. Vasky (Vaskivuo) found me coming in late and I had a pretty good screen in front by [Jean] Dupuy,” Valleau said. “I just got lucky and hit the net.”
The deciding moment of the contest came midway through the final twenty minutes. Orlando’s Chris Crane was called for tripping at 9:08, putting Atlanta on the power play for just the second time in the game. Halfway through the man advantage, the puck found its way back to the point where Doherty,a seventh-year pro from Cambridge, Ontario, let rip with a wicked slap shot that beat Heeter on the blocker side. It was the first goal of the season for the burly defender.
The Solar Bears, who had been held to just three shots in the frame up to that point, tried valiantly to reignite its offense. A late power play chance with 56 seconds to go in regulation gave Orlando and its fans hope for a game-tying goal but the visitors held the Solar Bear at bay. Frazee guaranteed the win when he stole the puck in the neutral zone and fired the puck into an empty net with 4.8 seconds to go to create the final score.
Despite the loss, Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky was pleased with how his team tightened up defensively after Saturday’s slugfest.
“We played more within [our] structure tonight. The guys did basically everything I asked for,” Berehowsky said. “There’s going to be mistakes in a game – that’s what it’s all about but I was happy with the effort, I was happy with the way they played the game. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t win.”
Notes: Orlando outshot Atlanta 38-26 on Sunday and 81 to 45 in the two-game set… The Solar Bears finished 0-for-2 on the power play while the Gladiators went 1-for-2… Atlanta’s Vladar ended up with 36 saves to get the win while Orlando’s Heeter stopped 22 in suffering his second straight defeat… With a point each in the contest, both Valleau and Winquist have three game point streaks going… The Solar Bears are off until Wednesday when the Florida Everblades come to the City Beautiful for the first time this season. Game time at the Amway Center is set for 7 p.m.
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