ESTERO, FL – During their recent winning streak, the Orlando Solar Bears offense found a way to get the job done. Whether it was a tight defensive struggle or a big scoring night, the Solar Bears were able to put up enough goals to pick up a win.
Friday night, Orlando found itself looking to avenge a loss 24 hours before to the Florida Everblades and reclaim its scoring punch at the same time. Unfortunately for the Solar Bears, they came up short for the second straight night.
Goalie Martin Ouellette held the Solar Bears to one goal by making 18 saves as the Everblades (43-12-2-4, 92 points) defeated Orlando (30-27-6-1, 67 points) 3-1 in front of an announced crowd of 4,522 at Germain Arena. Matt Berry, Jimmy DeVito and John McCarron each picked up a goal for Florida as the top team in the ECHL’s South division beat its in-state rival for the tenth time in thirteen meetings.
Max Novak scored the lone goal for the Solar Bears, who failed to move their magic number to clinch a playoff spot off the number seven. Goalie Mackenzie Skapski did his best to give Orlando a chance to win, making 29 saves in a losing effort.
The host Everblades, still in a fight for the number one seed in both the division and the Eastern conference with South Carolina, controlled a good amount of the tempo of the first period, keeping Skapski with 14 shots on net in the opening twenty minutes. The Orlando netminder had to make several big stops, including one on Florida’s Mitchell Heard in the dying seconds of the frame.
Florida had opened the scoring just past the midpoint of the period during a power play. Off of a faceoff, Heard made a pass down low to Stephen MacAulay who was able to find McCarron in the slot. McCarron took the feed and lasered a shot home for his 25th of the season.
At the other end, Ouellette was not as busy, facing just six Solar Bears shots during the opening stanza. He had to be at his sharpest when Orlando’s Hunter Fejes broke away and went in alone but the Everblades netminder easily turned the attempt away.
Penalties became the story in the second. Orlando took too many for the taste of head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky as they led to numerous power play chances for the Everblades.
Florida was able to double its lead 7:54 into the period. Following a non-call on what the Solar Bears thought should have been a penalty, Logan Roe sent DeVito in alone on Skapski. DeVito made a move and fired the puck past the goalie’s glove side for his ninth of the season. The score was also DeVito’s first since being acquired by the Everblades from Reading.
MacAulay later had an opportunity of his own to stretch the margin. He got loose on a break in and tested Skapski but the Orlando goalie stoned the Florida sniper. Skapski would not be as lucky in the final seconds of the frame when Spencer Smallman set up Berry who curled to the front and whipped a shot blocker side for his ninth of the year and a 3-0 cushion heading to the third.
All that was left was to see if Ouellette could record the shutout. Early in the third, he robbed Orlando’s Jean Dupuy by getting his blocker glove up to parry the shot away.
The Solar Bears finally found away to break Ouellette’s spell early in the final period. Playing on a third consecutive man advantage in the initial eight minutes of the stanza, Sam Jardine set up Novak for a blast from the circle to the right of the goalie through traffic. For Novak, it was his 18th of the season.
Orlando thought that Novak’s score would start a furious comeback but Ouellette had other plans. The St-Jerome, Quebec native was rock solid down the stretch, fending what shots the Solar Bears got past the Everblades defenders who were in shut-down mode. Berehowsky pulled Skapski with 1:19 remaining but the Solar Bears failed to get any closer as Ouellette picked up his 27th victory of the season.
The two teams will finish their season series with one last game Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Germain Arena.
Notes: The Everblades won the shot battle by a final count of 32-19… Each team scored once on the man advantage in nine opportunities for both… Robbie Baillargeon picked up his second Solar Bears point with the secondary assist on Novak’s tally… Rookie Keegan Harper, who was signed earlier in the week, made his pro debut on defense for Orlando… Earlier on Friday, the Solar Bears released rookie Manny Gialedakis. Gialedakis played in just one game for Orlando… The Solar Bears fell to 3-7-3-0 against the Everblades this season.
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