ORLANDO, FL – No matter what time of year, no matter what the standings say, the Orlando Solar Bears and Florida Everblades always seem to battle each other tooth and nail. The two Sunshine State rivals got together for the twelfth time this season Thursday night at the Amway Center and for what the game may have lacked in offensive fireworks, it made up for with playoff intensity and drama.
Logan Roe’s goal 1:51 into overtime proved to be the deciding tally as the visiting Everblades (42-12-2-4, 90 points) edged the host Solar Bears (30-26-6-1, 67 points) 2-1 in front of an announced crowd of 5,298. With the one point for pushing the contest to regulation, Orlando dropped its magic number for clinching a playoff spot in the ECHL’s South division to seven.
“Both teams played a good game,” Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said after the contest. “It’s unfortunate that we lost in overtime.”
The loss certainly once again proved that the Solar Bears, despite having a 3-6-3-0 record against the Everblades, can play with the best team in the division and Eastern conference and one of the top teams in the entire ECHL. It also took nothing away from the return of two very familiar faces to the Orlando lineup.
With an abundance of players on the Toronto Marlies roster, center Jean Dupuy was reassigned to the Solar Bears and played in his first game in an Orlando jersey since early February. The other notable lineup change was the return of defenseman Eric Baier, who had retired at the end of last season and had been doing color commentary for the team’s radio broadcasts. It was his presence on the ice in a number 77 jersey (his old number 7 belongs currently to Chris Crane), necessitated by an injury to Aleksandr Mikulovich and a callup for Nolan Valleau, that drew the most buzz in the building on this mid-March evening.
“It was a good feeling. There were some nerves and excitement going, a little combination of that,” the veteran blueliner said following his first game action April of 2017. “Once you get in there, my focus is still there. Everything kind of gets tuned out and it’s kind of back to what it was I guess. It’s the same mentality going forward and I’m just looking to improve every game here.”
Baier’s teammates came roaring out of the gates in the opening couple of minutes of the contest, forcing Florida goalie Martin Ouellette to make three early stops. Eventually the Everblades turned the tide, grabbing ten of the next twelve shots but found Heeter more than able to turn them aside.
Dupuy, who had tallied seven goals and 20 points in 27 games with the Solar Bears prior to his most recent callup, celebrated his return by scoring the game’s opening goal. Hunter Fejes did a good part of the work, digging the puck out and putting on the tape and Dupuy did the rest. Curling into the high slot, Dupuy saw an opening and fired a quick wrist shot back across his body and beating Ouellette high to the stick side for eighth tally in the ECHL this season.
“It was a good battle by Feej [Fejus] on the wall. I took it out and saw an opening to long drag. It hit his [Ouellette’s] stick and went in,” Dupuy said about the goal. “It’s good to get on the board and help the team.”
Just over a minute later, the Everblades tied things up. After an Orlando turnover, Steven Lorentz made the key play by passing the puck out to the slot area where teammate Brett Bulmer had some room. Bulmer took the feed and whistled a shot through some traffic and past Heeter for his 18th goal of the season.
Nobody in the bulding could have known that Bulmer’s score would be the last for a very long time. Both Heeter and Ouellette dialed back in after allowing the goals, settling into a classic showdown fit for a playoff game. Ouellette made an acrobatic glove save on Solar Bears forward Martins Dzierkals in the second period, one of ten stops he made in the middle frame to go with nine in the first. Heeter was also solid as a rock, making 17 saves in the second to add to the 11 he made in the opening frame.
Aided by a couple of power play chances, the Solar Bears went at the Everblades netminder in the third but the All-Star goalie refused to budge, turning away all twelve Orlando shots in the final frame on his way to a 32-save outing.
At the other end, it was Heeter’s turn to shine. He stoned John McCarron on a semi-break away midway through the stanza and withstood  a trio of solid scoring opportunities in the closing ninety seconds of regulation to send the game to an extra period.
In overtime, a turnover at the Florida defensive blueline allowed the Everblades MacAulay to get a clean breakaway. Heeter stood tall, making the save to keep the contest tied. Unfortunately for the Solar Bears, the Everblades maintained possession and moments later, Mitchell Head found MacAulay with a pass that set up essentiallya two-on-none with Roe. MacAulay could have easily shot but he teed up a pass for Roe who blasted the disc past Heeter, who finished with 39 saves, to end the game.
Dupuy said that despite playing a pretty good game as a team, the Solar Bears need to tighten up a couple of things ahead of Friday night’s rematch with the Everblades in Estero.
“We just need to clean up sime stuff in our defensive zone, coming back on our spots [and] reducing our amount of turnovers,” Dupuy said. “I thought overall we played a good game and held one of the best teams in the league to 1-1 all the way to the third. If we can come with that same effort tomorrow [Friday] and the day after tomorrow [the season series closing contest Saturday in Estero], I think we’ll be good.”
As for Baier, when asked what his motivation was for returning to the ice, he explained that it was that one thing that all hockey players have and never leaves them when the skates go into the back of the closet.
“[It’s] the love of the game. It’s the game and it’s being here. What a feeling. I can’t even put it into words,” Baier said as a huge smile crossed his face. “Getting back out there. Having watched so many games and doing color, being here for so long, it grows on you. The more you come, the more you watch. I got on the ice a couple of times [assisting the coaching staff with practices and skating with the players] and thought well maybe this could happen. It’s a great feeling to be here, especially with this [Orlando] being my residence now. It’s just unbelieveable right now.”
The two teams will head down I-75 for the final two meetings of the regular season Friday and Satirday nights in Estero.
Notes: Final shots in the contest were 41-33 in favor of the Everblades… Florida finished the game 0-for-4 on the power play while Orlando went 0-for-7… Solar Bears forward Kale Kerbashian played in his 200th career ECHL contest… Fejes’ assist on Dupuy extended his point streak to three games (1 goal, 3 assists). It was also his 50th professional assist… Among the other transactions during the week prior to Thursday’s game, the Solar Bears signed former Niagara University defenseman Keegan Harper to a standard player contract and waived forward Stephen Collins. Orlando also made the tough decision to waive veteran forward Darryl Bootland, which more than likely will be the final time he will play professionally. He will stay with the Solar Bears in an unspecified position through the rest of the season. In 16 years as a professional, Bootland played in 916 games, finishing with 238 goals and 263 assists for 501 professional points to go with 3,518 penalty minutes and a legion of fans in numerous cities across North America and Europe.
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