Denver Manderson (14), Rylan Schwartz (13) and Brady Vail (22) help T.J. Foster celebrate his 25th goal Wednesday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
ORLANDO, FLA – As the rest of the ECHL’s Eastern conference teams sat silent Wednesday night, the Orlando Solar Bears had an opportunity to pick up two points and gain ground in the race for the Kelly Cup playoffs. The only thing that stood the Solar Bears way was something that has at times been an issue all season: a South division opponent named the Florida Everblades.
Led by a goal each from Brendan O’Donnell, Gabriel Desjardins and newcomer Alexander Kuqali, the Everblades (43-21-0-2, 88 points) edged the Solar Bears (31-26-4-5, 71 points) 3-2 in front of an announced crowd of 6,144 at the Amway Center. Florida’s victory, its seventh in ten meetings against its in-state rival, put a dent in Orlando’s hopes of making the playoffs by keeping the Solar Bears five points out of the last post-season berth with six games remaining.
T.J. Foster and Eric Faille, who just returned with Brett Findlay from a callup to the AHL Toronto Marlies, scored the goals for host Orlando.
On this night, it was defensive struggles that plagued the young Solar Bears squad. Two costly turnovers and a missed assignment on a back check during an odd-man rush by the Everblades spelled trouble for Orlando, which has now failed to win in three straight contests.
“You look at the first two they got – they’re unassisted goals coming off our stick,” Orlando head coach Anthony Noreen said. “That’s nothing we can correct in practice or nothing we can show on video. It’s just guys making mistakes. It’s a game of mistakes. Those guys probably haven’t made those plays ten times in the last ten years. They just happened to happen tonight.”
Despite the lopsided season series record, Orlando felt it had a good chance to take down the Everblades based on having beaten Florida in three of the last five meetings. That confidence shot up several points when during an early first period plowe play, Denver Manderson threaded a perfect cross-ice pass to Foster who zipped a shot past Florida goalie Anthony Peters for his team-leading 25 goal just 3:25 into the game.
The middle part of the opening frame was slow on shots but high on drama. Orlando goalie Ryan Massa held the fort when Florida’s Jon DiSalvatore got a good look on a partial breakaway. Not too long after that, Peters kept the game a one-goal affair when he sprawled to keep Faille from finding the back of the net.
The first of Orlando’s fatal errors came at the 11:36 mark when a Solar Bears defenseman was forced into mishandling the puck by O’Donnell. O’Donnell collected the rubber, skated within a couple feet of Massa’s crease and lofted a shot high to the goalie’s stick side for his tenth goal of the season.
Mistake number two happened five minutes into the second period and it came during a Solar Bears power play. What should have been a routine pass back to the point became a steal and breakaway for Desjardins. He busted in all alone and again found room on Massa’s stick side for a short-handed tally and his eleventh of the year.
The Solar Bears came close to tying the score in the back half of the stanza when a shot from the slot broke through Peters’ pads and rolled toward the goal line. Just as the puck appeared on its way across the goal line, Peters was able to reach back and pull it away from danger. It was as close as Orlando would get to scoring in the middle period despite improving following the early errors.
“I really liked our puck possession. I thought our power play did a very good job. I thought we made plays. I thought we had the better of the chances,” Noreen said about his team’s overall play. “Honestly there was a lot of things that I liked. I thought we created chances. We got our breakaways. We had our two-on-ones early and just didn’t put the puck away.”
One of those missed breakaway chances occurred three and a half minutes into the final frame. Brady Vail, one of Orlando’s most lethal shooters got loose and made a beeline toward the Florida net. Peters, who finished the game with 32 saves, waited until Vail shot and snared the drive with his catching glove.
Peters’ glove work became important just over a minute later. The Everblades turned defense into offense, creating an odd-man rush up ice. Kevin Lynch took a feed from Matt Willows and lasered a shot that Massa turned away. The rebound came into the low slot where Kuqali, whose brother Nicholas played three games for the Solar Bears back in the 2012-2013 season, drove it into the wide open net for his first professional goal.
Kuqali’s score became a huge one during the late stages when the Solar Bears connected for a second man-advantage score. It came when Patrick Watling, back in the lineup after sitting out with an injury, sent Faille in with a pass. Faille split two defenders and fired a shot just inside to post to Peters’ left for his 22nd goal in an Orlando uniform.
The Solar Bears pushed hard in the closing minutes, hemming the Everblades in their defensive zone and buzzing around Peters. Unfortunately for the home team and its fans, the effort went unrewarded and Florida skated off with the win.
Faille, who admitted to being excited with the prospect of helping the Solar Bears with their playoff push, said that with so few games left dwelling on a handful of mistakes cannot be allowed to happen.
“Mistakes happen throughout the game. A perfect game doesn’t happen often. There’s always little mistakes that happen,” he said. “We’ve got to move past that. We’ve just got to find ways to put the puck in the net. I think we outshot them today (34-22 was the final count). We’ve just got to find that hole and put it in.”
Next up for the Solar Bears is a two-game set against the South Carolina Stingrays, another divisional opponent that has caused Orlando fits. Foster said if the Solar Bears stick to their game, they will have a chance to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“They’ve got great goaltenders. They’re a good defensive team. I think we’ve got some good offensive power,” Foster said. “If we stick to our structure, our game plan, I think it’s going to be a hard fought game. We can’t go in there thinking it’s going to be easy. They’re [near the] top of the conference. They’re still playing that battle for home ice. We’re fighting for our playoff lives. All the guys are looking forward to it.”
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