ORLANDO, FLA – On Thursday night, the Orlando Solar Bears and Norfolk Admirals played a game that had all the feel of a defensive playoff struggle that was eventually won by the host Solar Bears. Twenty-four hours later, the same two teams hit the ice at the Amway Center and it was as if both sides had forgotten what defensive hockey was all about.
Orlando defenseman Daniel Maggio nearly doubled his season’s output with a goal and two assists Friday night (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
Six different Solar Bears, led by Daniel Maggio and Jon Jutzi with a goal and two assists each, had at least two points as Orlando (26-18-6-2, 60 points) blasted Norfolk (18-28-4-0, 40 points) 7-4 in front of an announced crowd of 6,267. By virtue of the win, Orlando pushed ahead of idle Greenville into second place in the ECHL’s South division by one point over South Carolina.
Darik Angeli, Mason Marchment, Chris Crane and Alex Gacek joined Maggio and Jutzi in the multi-point club as the Solar Bears matched their season high for goals in a game at home. On two occasions they have hit eight goals on the road – both times against Atlanta – to go along with a nine-goal explosion in Alaska last month.
“After a tough road trip, you always want to take advantage of having home ice again,” Jutzi said. “We’re taking advantage of playing at home, playing in our building, some place that we’re comfortable. We just want to keep that going right now.”
Both teams seemed very comfortable on the Amway Center ice in the first period. The squads combined for five goals – one fewer than they had posted the night before – with the home team holding a slight edge.
Norfolk’s power play, which entered the contest with a 13.3 percent success rate, made Orlando pay for a mistake before the game was two minutes old. It came at the 1:44 mark when one-time Orlando forward T.J. Foster sent a pass to the top of the crease where Domenic Alberga directed it past Solar Bears netminder Ryan Massa for his second man advantage goal in as many nights and his sixth tally of the season.
The Solar Bears responded to the early adversity with three goals in a span to take control of the game. The tying goal at the 9:50 mark of the opening frame when after a shot by Jutzi was stopped by Norfolk goalie Brandon Anderson, Austin Block got to the rebound and slid a backhander into the open side of the net for his tenth of the year.
Seconds later, the Solar Bears went on the power play and cashed in quickly. Twenty-four seconds into the advantage, Shane Conacher sent an indirect pass off the side boards to Chris Bradley who one-timed a drive that eluded Anderson’s blocker glove for the defenseman’s fourth goal. Then at the 16:07 mark, Gacek took a feed from Maggio in the corner. Gacek started to circle behind the net but saw Marchment all alone at the post to Anderson’s left. Marchment took the pass and in one motion elevated the puck over the goalie’s left shoulder into the net for his eighth goal and second in as many nights.
Orlando’s Patrick Watling was whistled for cross checking with a minute to go in the period and that was more than enough time for the Admirals to draw closer. Mike Kreig made the key play by talking a shot from the point that Alberga redirected past Massa’s blocker for his second of the period and third man advantage score in three periods to make it 3-2 Orlando at the intermission.
The Solar Bears tried to run the Admirals out of the building, increasing their lead by two goals early in the second. Maggio netted the first one at the 2:22 mark on a blast from the boards off a face-off win by Crane for his second tally in two nights. Twelve seconds later, Crane took care of the scoring himself when he deposited a pass from Angeli into the back of the net for his 14th of the year and eleventh since coming to Orlando.
With Joe Perry in the penalty box a couple of minutes later, Norfolk once again took advantage by scoring a power play goal. As time was running down, Kreig put a shot on net that was redirected by Brodie Dupont past Massa for Dupont’s team-leading 15th goal and the Admirals third power play score in as many tries.
“We need to work on our PK (penalty killing). We let in three goals which is unacceptable,” Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky bluntly said afterwards. “We’ll go over some video and look at it.”
Thankfully for Berehowsky and the Solar Bears, the offense limited the penalty killing failures to a footnote in the contest. At the 13:42 mark of the second, Angeli got in on the scoring parade when he cleaned up the rebound of a Gacek shot for his eleventh tally of the season and eighth as a Solar Bear. Angeli’s goal allowed Orlando to take a 6-3 lead into the final period.
“Coach Drake told us that he wanted us to get as many pucks on net as possible and get [some] bodies at the net,” Maggio said. “Today we did that and we got rewarded.”
Norfolk head coach Robbie Ftorek inserted Philippe Desrosiers into the net to start the third period and it seemed to give the Admirals a spark. After killing off the remaining time left on a late second stanza penalty to Paul Rodrigues, Norfolk pulled to within 6-4 when Dupont took a feed from Rodrigues and from the bottom of the face-off circle to Massa’s right fired a laser that found the back of the net for his second of the night.
The teams went back and forth for much of the period but neither Massa nor Desrosiers, who made 13 saves in relief, was willing to yield. Late in the game, Ftorek pulled his goalie for an extra attacker. Jutzi put the dagger into the Admirals’ hopes for a comeback with just over a minute left when he got the puck along the half boards and lofted it down and into the empty net for his second of the season.
“I think Gacek was going to beat out the icing anyways so I thought the risk wasn’t that high there,” Jutzi said. “I got kind of lucky there but the big thing is we’re getting the two points.”
For Berehowsky, having Jutzi back from being on injured reserve just in time for the three-in-three run in the absence of captain Eric Baier, has been a huge plus.
“He’s a big man. He moves well and he’s been playing solid defense. He’s getting pucks out and he’s not getting beat back to the net,” Berehowsky said. “We’re happy to have him back in the lineup.”
Notes: Berehowsky was pleased that Orlando’s power play connected for the third consecutive game. The Solar Bears finished 1-for-5 with the man advantage while Norfolk ended up 3-for-4… Massa finished with 26 saves to earn his 14th win of the season while Anderson took the loss with 21 saves on 27 shots faced through two periods… The other two times the Solar Bears scored seven goals at home came with Berehowsky behind the bench on November 17th (Berehowsky’s first game back) against Greenville and November 22nd against Missouri.
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