T.J. Foster (17, center) celebrated his first of two goals Monday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
ORLANDO, FLA – There are many ways to lose a hockey game, none of which are as jarring as an overtime goal after a stirring comeback. Monday night, however, the Orlando Solar Bears may have taken it to a whole new level of heart-breaking.
Despite two goals and an assist from T.J. Foster, Orlando (23-22-3-5, 54 points) fell for the third consecutive game to the Kalamazoo Wings (25-24-4-1, 55 points), this time by a count of 4-3 in overtime. The loss left the Solar Bears sitting in 12th place in the ECHL’s Eastern conference standings with 19 games to play.
Alex Mallet was the hero for the visiting Wings, scoring twice including the game-winner 58 seconds into the five minute extra period. It came after Rylan Schwartz tied the score with just two seconds left in regulation following a controversial goal that had given Kalamazoo the lead.
“It would have been a lot harder [to take] if we didn’t get that goal with two seconds left. If we had come out of here with no points it would have been really tough,” Orlando head coach Anthony Noreen said. “Credit our guys. You give up a goal in pretty tough fashion [then] to tie it late. I didn’t think there was any panic up and down our bench. We knew what we wanted to do six-on-five. We had a plan. I thought our guys executed [it] really well. We might be sitting here a couple weeks from now and that one point that we got tonight is the one that makes the difference and gets us into the post-season.”
Playing the final game of a block of fourteen at the Amway Center in just over a month’s time, the Solar Bears were looking for momentum to take into their upcoming six-game, two-week sojourn to Manchester and Brampton. Doing so, as it turned out, would be a gut check type of performance as Noreen found himself down to five defensemen when co-captain Eric Baier was loaned to the AHL’s Stockton Heat and Myles Harvey abruptly retired (the team placed Harvey on suspension to protect Harvey’s rights should he change his mind). The situation was further hampered as one of the “healthy” defensemen was sick all afternoon and another was injured in the first period, leaving the team with essentially three and a half defensemen for much of the contest according to Noreen.
Despite the obstacles, Orlando came out skating hard and banging bodies which seemed to catch the Wings a bit off guard. The aggressive play paid off 2:58 into the opening frame when Max Nicastro made a perfect stretch pass to send Foster in alone on Kalamazoo goalie Joel Martin. Foster made one move and zipped a wrist shot past Martin’s stick into the bottom corner for his 18th goal of the season.
The teams settled into a defensive battle as Martin (33 saves) and Orlando’s Rob Madore were both strong between the pipes. The Wings finally evened things up at the 17:46 mark when an attempted clearing pass by the Solar Bears ended up on the stick of Justin Kovacs. Kovacs calmly slid a pass across the mid-slot area to Mallet who buried it into the back of the net for his 17th of the year.
Madore (33 saves) buckled down and kept Kalamazoo off the board through the rest of the first period and all of the second. Martin did his best to keep up but the Solar Bears did manage to find a way to put another one past him in the middle stanza.
The goal, which came at the 11:43 mark, was a play that exhibited both the talents and understanding of the game that Foster and teammate Austin Block have. After taking a pass from Johnny McInnis, Block began to circle around behind the Kalamazoo net. His instincts told him that Martin would follow him from post to post so he whipped a no-look, behind-the-back pass toward the base of the face-off circle. Foster instinctively drove for the open space and arrived in time to fire a shot to the near side that eluded Martin to put the Solar Bears back in front.
“There are certain guys that are just easy to play with and obviously Foster is one of them. I’ve probably tried that pass a million times and it hasn’t really paid off. I’m glad it worked out tonight,” Block said. “He (Foster) had a great game. He’s a playmaker. He can score goals and he’s easy to find out there. Obviously having chemistry like that with someone is really nice.”
The Wings pulled even for the second time in the game 7:27 into the third when Justin Taylor found defenseman Cory Pritz cruising down the slot. Taylor’s pass was true and Pritz ripped a shot off the inside of the post to Madore’s right for his third goal of the season.
The game got really interesting in the final two minutes. Kalamazoo took its first lead of the game with 1:24 to go on a play that no one in the posted crowd of 4,661 thought should have counted.
It began with the Wings moving through the neutral zone. As the puck headed toward the Orlando defensive blueline, Taylor appeared to grab the stick of Solar Bears defenseman Brenden Miller. It allowed Lane Scheidl enough room to collect the puck and streak into the offensive zone. His shot was stopped by Madore but the rebound came out to where Taylor pounced on it and drove it home for his 17th of the year.
“It kind if took the wind out of our sails a bit but we just took a deep breath and said we still have a minute and a half to get the puck in their end and put it on the net and see what happens,” Foster said.
Noreen pulled Madore with 1:15 remaining and the Solar Bears held their collective breaths as Ludwig Blomstrand missed what would have been the game-clinching goal. That was the opportunity Orlando needed as with time winding down, Patrick Watling weaved through a couple of defenders before threading a pass to Schwartz on the backside of the play. Schwartz hammered it into the back of the net for his 12th goal and more importantly earned a point for his team by sending the game into overtime.
In the extra period, Blomstrand drove the net and put a shot on Madore that the goalie stopped. Blomstrand managed to knock the puck away from Madore to Mallet who fired it in to give the Wings a sweep of the three-game series.
Orlando finished the stretch of home games with a 5-6-1-2 record, earning 13 out of a possible 28 points. Still, the team’s play in the final two contests against Kalamazoo had some bright spots that hopefully might fuel even better play – and possibly more wins – on the road starting Friday night against the co-conference leading Monarchs.
“I thought our power play was moving it well on the one look we had. We started strong and that’s a positive and Rob Madore was kicking it in the net,” Foster said. “We’re coming down the stretch here trying to get into the playoffs. We’ve got to focus on that and come together as a team and really make a push.”
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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