ORLANDO, FL – Friday night at the Amway Center, the Orlando Solar Bears were hoping to find the offense that had failed them two nights before against the Florida Everblades. If they were to do it, it would have to be against a team that they knew little about – the Wheeling Nailers.
Orlando’s Mike Monfredo unleashes a shot that became his third goal of the season Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
It took a little bit but the Solar Bears scoring touch did come back to them.
Led by J.J. Piccinich’s two goals and three point nights by Mike Monfredo and Max Novak, Orlando (21-21-5-1, 48 points) came away with an impressive 5-2 victory over Wheeling (26-20-4-0, 56 points) in front of an announced crowd of 5,056. Joe Perry also lit the goal light for the Solar Bears, who saw goalie Cal Heeter return to the lineup with a solid 22 save effort.
“I thought it was a good game. I thought both teams played hard,” Orlando head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said. “It was a well fought game and we were just fortunate to get the two points.”
Seeing the Nailers in Central Florida was a change of pace for the home fans. How much of a change? The last time Wheeling appeared at the Amway Center was in January of 2013 when one of its two goalies was Scott Darling who has since graduated to the NHL. Despite the lack of visits south, the Solar Bears had amassed an impressive 8-0 all-time record against the Nailers over the last five seasons.
Neither team was impressive out of the blocks but Orlando was quicker to find its rhythm. It took 4:17 for the Solar Bears to open the scoring when veteran Darryl Bootland, who was playing for the first time since February 2nd, chipped a pass to Josh Winquist who sped into the Wheeling end. Monfredo saw an opportunity to jump up, creating a two-on-one break that he finished off with a high rising shot that beat Nailers goalie Will King to the short side top corner.
“It was a good chip by Booter [Bootland] when he got the puck and I saw an opportunity to join the rush,” Monfredo said about his game-opening tally. “Winny [Winquist] made a great pass across [and] I got the puck up just enough to go over the goalie’s shoulder.”
It was the lone score of the first twenty minutes as the two teams played a fairly tight defensive game that featured Heeter and King making save after save at either end. What made the clean scoresheet for the Solar Bears a bit more impressive was the fact that they held the Nailers power play, which entered the contest with a 20.8 percent success rate, scoreless in three tries.
Wheeling opened the second period with a power play created by a penalty to Orlando’s Alex Gudbranson at final horn in the first. It took nearly all of the time but the Nailers were able to connect when a shot by Dylan Zink took a hard carom off the back boards to the front where Freddie Tiffels banged home his seventh of the year at the 1:46 mark.
Orlando’s Joe Perry (26, white) fires a shot that turned into his eighth goal during Friday’s Solar Bears win (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Tiffels’s score began a sequence of point-counterpoint between the two teams that lasted seven minutes. The Solar Bears responded by re-taking the lead at the 3:11 mark when Perry collected the rebound of a shot by Gudbranson and squeezed it between King’s legs for his eighth score of the 2017-18 season.
The home team had an opportunity to extend its lead forty seconds later when the Nailers’ Danny Fick was sent to the penalty box. Instead of the Solar Bears taking advantage, it was Wheeling that scored when Cody Wydo outraced Winquist to break in alone on Heeter and beat the Orlando goalie with a shot back across the netminder’s body for his 20th goal of the season and the Nailers sixth short-handed tally.
The barrage of goals came to an end just about four and a half minutes later when during a power play, Monfredo got the puck to Piccinich who drove to the inside edge of the circle to King’s right and went top corner on the netminder’s glove (left) side for his 11th goal of the year.
A late penalty on the Nailers’ Kevin Schulze gave Orlando one more chance to score before the second intermission and the Solar Bears took advantage. With time winding down, Sam Jardine sent the puck to Monfredo who lined up a shot from the top of the left circle. As he did, Piccinich went to the front of the net and redirected the drive for his second of the night and 12th of the season.
The third period was a tour de force of defense by the Solar Bears. They clamped down, allowing the Nailers just two shots that got through to Heeter. Much of the work was done by the offense as it kept King (29 saves) very busy during the final frame. Novak put the capper on the game when he took a pass from Hunter Fejes and blasted a one-timer past King with 1:22 to go for his 14th of the season to create the final score.
Novak said that despite not having played the Nailers prior to Friday night, they were able to get a feel for Wheeling’s style of play thanks to technology and a little scouting from Fejes, who came from the Nailers in a trade.
“It was a little different because all you have going in is video. I know Fejes came from themso he was telling us a little bit about their team,” Novak said.”You really don’t know until you get out there. I think both teams in the first were kind of feeling each other out a little bit and it kind of settled down in the second.”
Notes: Orlando outshot Wheeling by a count of 34-24 in the game… The Solar Bears went 2-for-4 on the power play while the Nailers finished 1-for-5… The win for Heeter, who had missed the previous five game with an injury, was his 12th of the season… The win was Berehowsky’s 80th behind the Orlando bench, tying him with Vince Williams most wins as the Solar Bears coach. Berehowsky’s record is now 80-79-22… The two teams will meet Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. at the Amway Center. The start time is to accommodate a rescheduled concert that had been postoned in September by a hurricane.
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