ORLANDO, FLA – As early season games go, Friday night’s contest between the winless Orlando Solar Bears and the unbeaten Florida Everblades figured to be a typical battle between two heated rivals. On this night, however, the stakes were a little higher. One team was riding a pretty good high while the other was looking for a positive outcome.
In the end, it was the side that needed it more that prevailed.
Orlando goalie Specer Martin (30, purple) fends off a shot through a screen by Florida’s Blake Winiecki during Friday’s first period (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Paced by some balanced scoring and a clutch 30-save performance in net by goalie Spencer Martin, the host Solar Bears (1-3-0-0) doubled up on their visitors from southwest Florida by a final of 4-2 in front on an announced crowd of 4,897 at the Amway Center. Taylor Doherty, Hunter Fejes, Brent Pedersen and Mike Monfredo each struck for a goal while rookie Jimmy Huntington, playing in his first game in an Orlando jersey, contributed two assists.
“Tonight was a huge win for us emotionally. As a team, I think we really focused on that this week in terms of battling and getting our intensity ready. We know that they [Florida] are our biggest rival as a team,” Fejes, one of the Solar Bears leaders, said. “Being down 0-3 [in the standings], no one wants that. Yes it’s 0-3 but we play 72 games. There’s no reason to push the panic button but at the same time our backs were up against the wall and we needed this game to move forward especially for the weekend.”
The early minutes of the opening period had to be concerning for Solar Bears fans. Florida was gunning to force Orlando into mistakes and they created several and a penalty on Jake Marchment only increased the angst. By the time the frame reached the midpoint, the Everblades had a 10-2 shot advantage.
Friday night, however, was different. Martin, who was assigned to Orlando by the Tampa Bay Lightning, was much more ready for the challenge than in his first two starts. He was able to withstand the onslaught, giving his teammates a big lift.
“Every game I go in there with a mindset of hold them off as long as you can [waiting] for the first one [goal by own team] and that just gets you going,” Martin said. “I thought we played well the whole game. Even at the begining when they were outshooting us – they had ten shots because of a penalty kill so we did a good job on that – and eventually we turned right around and once we got to even strength, we did great.”
Buoyed by Martin’s effort, Orlando did indeed turn things around. At the 10:23 mark, a turnover in the Florida defensive zone left the puck floating in open ice. Doherty stepped up and took control, heading into the slot area and blasting a low, hard shot past Everblades netminder Cam Johnson for the big blueliner’s first goal of the season.
Solar Bears defenseman Taylor Doherty celebrates one of Orlando’s two first period goals (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“I just saw the puck come off the wall. It was kind of a bad pass by their guy to their winger. I saw it and just jumped it,” Doherty said. “I just kind of got to the middle [of the ice] as fast as I could and got the [shot] off quickly hoping to catch the goalie and I did.”
Less than a minute later, the Solar Bears went on a power play and Doherty was right in the middle of that one too. Huntington showed off his faceoff skills, winning the draw cleanly back to Doherty at the point. As the defenseman unloaded a booming drive, Fejes went for the net where the puck hit him and careened into the back of the cage passed a stunned Johnson. For Fejes, it was his first score of the year and for Huntington, it was his first professional point.
“As a team we have our faceoff plays and my job right there was just to go to the front of the net,” Fejes said about his tally. “It was a clean faceoff win [by Huntington] and I was fortunate enough that it bounced off of me. It was a great shot by Doherty and the goalie didn’t even see it.”
The Solar Bears had a chance late in the first to extend their lead when following a dust-up between Orlando defenseman Oleg Sosunov and Florida’s Jack Nevins that put the home team on a power play, a second infraction turned into a two-man advantage. Orlando managed two shots on net but failed to score, leaving the margin at 2-0 heading into the second.
Orlando took an even tighter control of the game in the middle stanza with two more goals. At the 7:43 mark, Huntington and Monfredo busted out on an odd-man rush. Drawing the lone defender in his direction, Huntington slipped a pass to the Solar Bears captain and he picked the top right corner of the net for his first of the year.
Less than four minutes later, the lead grew to 4-0 when Pedersen notched his first of the 2019-20 campaign. It started when Michael Brodzinski sailed a half shot, half pass down low that hit Pedersen. He in turn kicked it back to Dylan Fitze who fired but hit his teammate. Pedersen quickly grabbed control of the rebound, spun around and rifled a shot past Johnson through a screen.
Solar Bears forward Jimmy Huntington (63, purple) gets turned away by Florida goalie Cam Johnson (33, white) as Cam Maclise tries to slow Huntington down (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Pedersen’s score ended the night for Johnson, who was replaced by Ken Appleby bewteen the pipes for the Everblades. The change lit a fire under the visitors and led to a goal. John McCarron set it up with a shot from along the boards that Martin kicked out. The rebound went to a wide open Winiecki who backhanded it home for his third of the season.
Holding a commanding 4-1 lead heading into the final twenty minutes, the Solar Bears played the Everblades to a standoff. A final minute goal by Florida’s Cam Maclise on a shot from along the boards only delayed what was a solid and much needed victory for Orlando as both the team and its fans seemed to share a collective relief.
For Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky, the win was the culmination of a good effort by everyone up and down the lineup.
“I think that Marty [Martin] gave us an opportunity to win and then we settled in. Of course, any time you get the first goal it helps,” Berehowsky said. “Out of all the games we’ve played so far, this was probably our most sound one for the most part so I’m pretty happy with the progression that we’re in right now.”
The two teams will finish the weekend with a return contest at Hertz Arena in Estero on Saturday. Asked what the Solar Bears need to do to complete the weekend sweep, Doherty focused in on coming out of the locker room ready to go.
“They always come out pretty hot in their building. I’ve played there a lot over a few years here,” Doherty said. “I think we need a better start than we had tonight. That’s going to be crucial for us I think [Saturday] night. [We need to do] a lot of the same things we did tonight but a little bit more like sticking to our structure throughout the game and don’t try to complicate it.”
Notes: Final shots were 34-32 in favor of Orlando… Florida went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Solar Bears finished 1-for-5… Fejes’ goal was his 50th career point (23 goals, 27 assists) with the Solar Bears… Monfredo, Pedersen and Brodzinski each extended point streaks to two games.
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