ORLANDO, FLA – After starting off a five-game road trip on November 10th with a solid victory over South Carolina, the Orlando Solar Bears headed even further north for a four-game swing through New England with contests against the new Maine Mariners in Portland, the Manchester Monarchs in New Hampshire and two with the Worcester Railers in Massachusetts. There was snow on the ground and at times, the Solar Bears seemed to be spinning their wheels as they went 1-2-1-0 on the roadie with the win coming in overtime over Worcester.
Coming off the win in North Charleston, the Solar Bears had a shot to extend their winning streak to four games. Orlando also had an opportunity in Portland to earn a double century mark achievement for two of its cast as Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky and goalie Martin Ouellette were both looking for their 100th career wins as the coach of the Solar Bears (Berehowsky) and professional games (Ouellette).
Things did not start off well as Maine jumped in front in the first just after its second power play of the game when Dwyer Tschantz jammed a loose puck home. Ninety-one seconds later, Orlando responded when Chris LeBlanc set up Stefan Fournier who notched his first goal as a Solar Bear.
The Mariners took control for good with two more tallies before the first period ended. Dawson Leedahl went five hole on Ouellette to cap an odd-man rush and Shawn St-Amant bagged his first of the night to put Maine up 3-1 after one.
Mathieu Foget cut the home team’s lead to 3-2 just 2:18 into the middle frame, taking a feed from Brent Pedersen and steamed in on net, beating Mariners goalie Brandon Halverson for his second with Orlando and third overall.
Maine picked up a power play score by St-Amant on a redirect for his second of the game at 14:25 to restore the Mariners two-goal lead at 4-2 heading to the third. Again the Solar Bears started to mount a comeback when Vincent Dunn scored his fourth of the season at 6:59 of the third but 4-3 was as close as the visitors would get. St-Amant capped a big night with a power play tally for his hat trick at 9:08 and Brycen Martin scored an empty net short-handed goal with just over two minutes left to complete the scoring for a 6-3 win by Maine.
Thursday morning dawned with the Solar Bears heading to Manchester but Ouellette, who stopped 36 Wednesday night, was not with them. He was on his way to join the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch as Tampa starting netminder Andrei Vaselevskiy was hurt in practice the day before, causing a callup chain that sent Ouellette to Syracuse. Berehowsky quickly found himself a backup goalie to play behind rookie Corbin Boes in fellow rookie Hayden Stewart. Stewart, who played his college hockey at Cornell where he backed up former OSB goalie and current Worcester cager Mitch Gillum, had been playing for SPHL Knoxville after turning pro last spring and going 2-2 for the Cincinnati Cyclones where he was seen by new Solar Bears assistant coach Marc LeFebvre.
Friday in Manchester, Boes got his third start of the season and was solid throughout. After pitching a shutout in the first, the Monarchs finally beat him 4:04 into the second when Spencer Watson was left wide open in the slot. It took just 19 seconds for the visitors to respond when Tayler Thompson drove the net but had the puck poke checked away. It skidded right to Foget who buried it for his third with the Solar Bears, fourth of the season overall and second in as many games.
When Watson netted his second of the game 9:11 into the third, the Monarchs had the lead back but the Solar Bears were not quite done. They went on their first and only power play of the game with 1:43 left and Brady Shaw made the home team pay with hos team-leading eighth of the season to send the contest into overtime. After both Boes and Manchester goalie Chris Driedger withstood early chances in the extra period, Stepan Falkovsky ended the contest when he outmuscled a defender and fired a shot just over Boes’ left pad for the winner.
Boes made 25 saves in Friday’s game, earning him a start on Saturday in Worcester. The Railers jumped out early on a power play goal by Mike Cornell 1:28 into the game but Orlando struck back at 6:59 when a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play involving Dunn and Foget was finished off by defenseman Matthew Spencer for his first after being assigned to the Solar Bears by Tampa/Syracuse.
A late first period goal by Massachusetts native Nick Bligh and a second by him 2:48 into the second put Worcester up 3-1. Less than two minutes later, Ivan Kosorenkov netted a power play goal to make it 4-1 and ended Boes’ night as Berehowsky sent Stewart out between the pipes.
Stewart performed admirably, stopping all six shots he faced in the remainder of the second and held the Railers off in the third until Matthew Gaudreau scored at 15:41 to finish the scoring in a 5-1 rout.
Sunday afternoon saw Stewart get his first official start with Orlando and he held the fort well, keeping Worcester off the board through 40 minutes. Railers goalie Charlie Millen was just as good, blanking the Solar Bears until Shaw netted a power play tally with 1:17 left in the second. For Shaw, it was his ninth of the season.
Worcester evened the score on a power play early in the third with Kosorenko doing the honors at 2:23 for his second in as many games and fourth of the year.
When LeBlanc scored his first of the season by cleaning up the rebound of a shot by Mike Monfredo at 6:34 and rookie Trevor Olson netted his second off a faceoff win by LeBlanc two minutes later, it looked like the visitors had solid control of the contest.
The Railers had other ideas as Tyler Barnes scored a man advantage goal with Orlando’s Thompson off for delay of game at 11:02. Gaudreau then turned a turnover into a game-tying score at 16:14 to even things up at 3-3.
A late power play gave Worcester a chance to win it in overtime but Orlando hung tough, forcing the game into overtime. They survived the remaining eleven second of penalty kill time before Michael Brodzinski ended it with his fourth of the season to send Orlando back home with two points.
Notes: Over the four game stretch, Orlando faced 21 penalty kill situations and surrendered six goals. The Solar Bears certainly did not have as many chances on the power play, going 2-for-8 in the four contests… Orlando was outshot in two of the games but offensively stayed consistent, averaging just over 32 shots per game… Orlando begins a five-game homestand on Wednesday night when South Carolina heads into the Amway Center. Over Thanksgiving weekend, the expansion Newfoundland Growlers, who will be carrying an 8-game win streak into a Wednesday contest in Jacksonville, invade the City Beautiful in a two-game battle of the the former and current ECHL affiliates of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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