ESTERO, FL – With one game left in the season series, the Orlando Solar Bears were once again on the short end of playing the Florida Everblades. They had one last shot at sending a message that this year’s Solar Bears could be just as tough an out as the team that took the Everblades to seven games in the 2017 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs a year ago.
Saturday night at Germain Arena, the message was sent very loudly and very clearly.
Led by Max Novak who tied two franchise marks with a goal and four assists, the visiting Solar Bears (31-27-6-1, 69 points) took down the top dog – or in this case alligator – by beating the Everblades (43-13-2-4, 92 points) 8-5 in front of an announced crowd of 6,655. Kale Kerbashian and Hunter Fejes each contributed two goals and two assists while goalie Cal Heeter made 37 saves to give Orlando its fourth win in fourteen tries against Florida.
Novak,who played his college hockey at Union College, tied the ECHL Solar Bears franchise record for most assists in a single game, set by Mathew Sisca on October 19, 2012 against the Everblades. He also equaled the mark for most points in a contest at five, first set by Michael Neal on January 13, 2013 against Wheeling and tied by current Solar Bear Josh Winquist on December 29, 2017 also against the Everblades.
The way the first period was played, no one would have had any clue that as much offense would come from the contest. The opening stanza was a tightly contested one that ended with Orlando outshooting Florida 10-9 but the game being tied.
Florida opened the scoring at the 13:41 mark. It came when Mitchell Heard sent Joe Cox away with a between-the-legs pass. Cox carried into the Solar Bears defensive zone where he eventually fed the disc to Stephen MacAulay who beat Heeter for his 24th goal of the season.
The Solar Bears took advantage of a late power play to pull even. At 16:25 of the frame, Kerbashian set up Fejes who fired a shot at Everblades netminder Martin Ouellette. Ouellette got a piece of the drive but the puck hit the ice and skidded across the goal line for his 26th goal of the season and 10th as a Solar Bear.
The Everblades tried to run Orlando out of the building at the start of the second. They bombarded Heeter with shot after shot in the opening minutes but the netminder from St. Louis, MO was ready and able to stop all of them.
Florida took the lead again at the 7:05 mark of the frame when Matt Berry netted his 10th of the year. It was made possible by a shot by Spencer Smallman that Heeter blocked but could not control. The puck fell into the crease where Berry was able to poke it home.
Berry’s tally seemed to be the wakeup call that Orlando needed. Three minutes and 32 seconds later, the Solar Bears responded with a tying tally. It came off the stick of Novak who collected the rebound of a shot by Joe Perry and chipped it over Ouellette for his 19th of the season.
The game opened up into an old west shootout as the teams went up and down the ice, keeping the goalies busy. Orlando broke the tie when J.J. Piccinich sent Fejes away on a partial breakaway. Fejes did the rest, sending a laser past the Everblades netminder for his second of the game at the 15:05 mark to put the visitors ahead for good.
With just over a minute left in the middle period, the Solar Bears extended their lead to two when an offensive zone push by Florida resulted in an odd-man rush the other way, leading to Kerbashian’s seventh goal of the season off an assist from Novak.
Kerbashian’s score came with a delayed penalty coming to the Everblades. As Heeter headed to the bench, he was engaged by a Florida player. In the celebration that followed the goal, Orlando defenseman Mike Monfredo took up for his goalie, igniting the tempers that always seem to come into play during this intense divisional and in-state rivalry. By the time the dust settled, Solar Bears defenseman Sam Jardine and Everblades forward Brett Bulmer were trading punches at center ice and Florida’s Kyle Neuber had picked up a roughing penalty for engaging with Monfredo. The goalies even got involved at Heeter and Ouellette played catch with the puck, taking turns firing it at each other from their end of the ice.
Down by two, the Everblades were able to cut the margin to 4-3 before the intermission. Heard, who normally is in the middle of things when the two teams get angry, put home a wraparound attempt with 23.2 ticks left on the clock for his 22nd of the season.
Infused with confidence from scoring three in the middle stanza, the Solar Bears went nuts in the first 5:18 of the third. Just 2:06 in, defenseman Alex Gudbranson grabbed a loose puck and fired it past Ouellette for his fourth of the season. It was a fortunate bounce for the blueliner as the biscuit hopped over the stick of an Everblades player before Gudbranson jumped on it. The play was unlucky for Ouellette who, after playing all of Thurday’s and Friday’s minutes and shutting down Orlando, was pulled in favor of Tyler Parks.
Orlando then took advantage of two untimely penalties to blow the game wide open. Playing a man up, Kerbashian welcomed Parks to the contest with a wicked shot that beat the new netminder’s glove for the veteran forward’s second of the night and eighth of the season. A second infraction twenty ticks later turned into yet another powerplay goal when Jean Dupuy squeezed a shot through Parks’ pads for his ninth as a Solar Bear to make it 7-3.
The Everblades pulled within 7-4 at the 12:33 mark when during a power play, Berry redirected a shot by Derek Sheppard over Heeter’s leg for his second of the game. Four minutes later, Heard sent a pass to Cox who one-timed a shot home for his 19th to make it 7-5.
Florida head coach Brad Ralph pulled Parks with three minutes to go in a desperate attempt to find two more scores. Perry squashed the home fans hopes when from on the iceafter being pulled down, he was able to slide the puck into the yawning cage for his13th with 2:29 to go to close the scoring.
With the win, Orlando trimmed its magic number for locking up a spot in the playoffs to five over both Jacksonville and Norfolk. With the Icemen defeating Atlanta in overtime, the Solar Bears cut their magic number to secure the third seed in the divisional part of the post season to eight.
Notes: Florida outshot Orlando in the contest by a count of 42-30… The Solar Bears connected for three power play goals in eight attempts while the Everblades were successful once in three tries with the man advantage… With his assist on Kerbashian’s first score, Novak notched his 50th professional assist… Heeter’s victory was his 18th of the season… Kerbashian was credited with the game-winning goal, his fourht of the season and third in the month of March… Orlando went 2-1-1 against the Everblades in the final four meetings of the season with both victories coming at Germain Arena. Over the last four, the Solar Bears outscored the Everblades 13-11… Orlando will begin its final homestand of the regular season Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against the South Carolina Stingrays. It will be the first of three straight meetings at the Amway Center. The teams will also close the season against each other on Saturday, April 7th in North Charleston.
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