KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Under normal circumstances, most teams subscribe to the theory that dominating at home and breaking even on the road equals playoffs. Right now, the Orlando Solar Bears are flipping that equation on its head in spectacular fashion.
T. J. Foster and Eric Faille each tallied two goals and an assist as the Solar Bears (16-14-2-3, 37 points) hung a 6-2 thumping on the Kalamazoo Wings (14-19-2-1, 31 points) Tuesday night at the Wings Events Center. Rylan Schwartz, the third member of Orlando’s top line with Foster and Faille, added three assists to the cause as did Brady Vail to help the visitors win their fourth consecutive game on the team’s current road trip.
The victory ran the Solar Bears’ record away from the Amway Center to a robust 10-5-2-3, much better than the 6-9-0-0 mark at home. It was also Orlando’s sixth win in the month of January, four more than its win total for the entire month of December.
The trio of Foster, Schwartz and Faille has been white hot on this current trip. They have combined for ten goals and thirteen assists in four games since head coach Anthony Noreen put them together. The confidence with which the line has been playing has infected the entire roster as the Solar Bears have out-scored their opponents 25-10 since leaving Central Florida.
With snow falling outside the arena, the Solar Bears began to heat things up inside right away. The game was less than five minutes old when Matt Rupert broke in alone on the Kalamazoo net, forcing Wings netminder Clay Witt to make a big save to keep it scoreless.
Witt was not so lucky a couple of minutes later when Orlando opened the scoring. Some intense forechecking led to a Vail steal behind the Wings’ net. Vail fired a pass to Erik Bradford who slipped a shot past the Kalamazoo goalie for his third goal of the season at the 7:42mark.
There was no other scoring in the frame thanks to Orlando netminder Rob Madore. Madore, fresh off his fourth trip – and victory – to the AHL Toronto Marlies, was perfect in the stanza with thirteen saves on thirteen shots. Late in the period, he made a brilliant sliding save to rob Tanner Sorenson to keep the Solar Bears ahead at the intermission.
Both goalies began the second period with huge saves. Madore made another sprawling stop to deny Ludwig Blomstrand and moments later Witt stared down Faille to keep it a one-goal game.
The Wings were able to even things up at the 7:07 mark of the frame when David Gilbert squeezed a shot between Madore’s pad and the post for his ninth of the year. The tie lasted all of 22 seconds before Foster and Faille broke in on a two-on-one break and Faille netted his sixteenth of the season off a Foster pass.
Foster got into the goal column three minutes later when some nifty tic-tac-toe passing led to a pass by Schwartz to the Slave Lake, Alberta native who buried it behind Witt. It was Foster’s thirteenth tally of the season and third on the trip.
Dane Fox brought the K-Wings back within one when he converted his own rebound after a Madore save at the 16:01 mark. Fox’ twelfth score was as close as the home team would get.
Foster pushed the Solar Bears lead back to two goals a little over two minutes later. At the end of a long shift, he drove to the net where Johnny McInnis found him on the back side for a slam dunk score.
Nicklas Lindberg increased Orlando’s lead to 5-2 early in the third. Again it was Vail creating the opportunity with a steal and a pretty drop pass to Lindberg who roofed a wrist shot for his first goal in a Solar Bears uniform. Faille closed the scoresheet midway through the final period when he redirected a Lindberg pass up and over Witt (29 saves).
Madore, who beat Norfolk last Wednesday before backstopping the Marlies to a road win over Manitoba on Friday, was solid between the pipes with 29 saves for his second straight win for the Solar Bears.
Orlando is off until Friday when it travels to Fort Wayne to take on the Komets.
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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