ORLANDO, FLA – When the Orlando Solar Bears joined the ECHL, they looked at playing at the Amway Center as an advantage because the building was intimidating for opponents to play in. The team always played well in front of its fans and every break and bounce seemed to go its way.
Orlando forward Todd Skirving scored his third goal in two games Sunday against Florida (Photo courtesy of Gary Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
So far this season, however, Orlando just cannot seem to catch a break on home ice.
In front of an announced crowd of 4,915 Sunday afternoon, the Solar Bears once again found themselves wondering why the hockey gods hated them as a couple of bounces allowed the Florida Everblades (10-2-0-1, 21 points) to grab a 4-3 win over host Orlando (2-6-2-0, 6 points). With the loss, the Solar Bears finished the first homestand of the 2017-18 season without a win and just two points out of a possible fourteen.
“It’s tough. It seems like [we’re in a] nothing is going our way right now kind of thing and the guys are a little bit down about that,” Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky said after his team’s fifth regulation loss in its first seven home contests. “The big thing is we’ve got to stay positive. We’ve got to take all the good we did from tonight and we’ve got to bring it to our next game and just keep building on that and eventually things will go our way.”
The Solar Bears certainly had to think they had things in their favor. Orlando had two days off from game action while the visiting Everblades played two tough contests against the Cincinnati Cyclones at home before heading to Central Florida overnight. Florida did not seem to be affected by the schedule as it came out pressing the Solar Bears and starting goalie Cal Heeter, building a 10-4 shots advantage in the first ten minutes of the opening period.
Needing a spark, Orlando’s Mackenzie Braid dropped the gloves with the Everblades’ Nolan LaPorte at the 10:48 mark. Although Braid ended up on the bottom of the pile, the fight energized the crowd and gave his team a lift.
The Solar Bears began pushing back against Florida netminder Martin Ouellette, forcing the veteran goalie to be sharp. Orlando quickly began to close the gap on the shot clock but it would just be a matter of time before the Solar Bears ran into some bad juju.
At the 15:39 mark of the frame, the Everblades turned some hustle into an opportunity with some luck added in. Mitchell Heard sent the puck around the boards in the Orlando end, As it caromed off the end boards, Quentin Shore outraced a Solar Bears defender and got to the puck first. Shore quickly turned and fired toward the front of the net where it hit Heeter in the back and bounded into the net for Shore’s first goal of the season.
Trailing by one as the second period began, Orlando knew it needed to kick things up a notch. The Solar Bears roared out of the locker room and took the game to the Everblades, outshooting Florida in the early minutes of the frame.
The onslaught led to the tying score from a familiar face. At the 5:37 mark, Josh Winquist sent the puck to Matias Cleland at the point. Cleland found a shooting lane and sent the puck toward the net where Chris Crane redirected it past Ouellette for his fourth of the year.
Less than a minute later, the Everblades regained the lead when Heard circled behind the Orlando net before firing a pass to the face-off circle where Josiah Didier was waiting all alone. Didier settled the disc and ripped a shot into the net for his second tally of the 2017-18 campaign and a 2-1 margin.
The Solar Bears dug their heels in and continued to push the tempo and the effort paid off with the equalizer midway through the stanza. Working the puck along the blue line, Mike Monfredo set up his defense partner Sam Jardine for a wicked blast. The shot was stopped by Ouellette but Winquist was in the right place to deposit the rebound in the back of the net for his third of the season.
Orlando’s Chris Crane (7, white) watches his deflection get past Florida goalie Martin Ouellette during Sunday’s second period (Photo Courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“I got body position in front and then just battled and put it in the side of the net,” Winquist said about his score.
Less than two minutes later, the Solar Bears special teams chipped in with a tally to put the home team in front. Winquist was involved once more, feeding the puck to Nolan Valleau at the point. Valleau put a shot in the direction of the net where Todd Skirving got his stick blade on it and sent the puck past Ouellette for his third goal in two games and a 3-2 Orlando lead.
Late in the period, back-to-back penalties to the Solar Bears cost them dearly. With Skirving and Monfredo both in the box, the Everblades turned the two-man advantage into a goal when a shot by Heard was stopped by Heeter. The goalie was not able to control the rebound and Stephen MacAulay banged it home for his sixth goal of the season and a tie score.
Berehowsky was pleased with the way his Solar Bears battled in the middle frame and said the three goals were proof that the team was doing things right.
“I think it was a combination of everything. I think our first period we set it up and [in] the second period things started to fall for us,” he said. “If we play we’re capable of playing, we’ll have success. We’ve just got to keep working at it.”
The final twenty minutes started off tightly contested and interrupted by penalties to both teams. The Solar Bears held the high-powered Everblades offense in check while the home team pounded Ouellette with shot after shot only to be denied.
As time began to wind down, it looked like the teams would be heading to overtime but the fates interveined in favor of the visitors. With 3:12 left in regulation, the puck was sent around the glass toward the back of the Orlando net. As Heeter went out to play it, the puck clipped part of one of the supports and veered in a different direction. Before Heeter could adjust, Joe Cox beat a defender and the goalie to the disc and dropped it into the wide open net for his fourth goal of the season and the eventual game winner.
The Solar Bears still had time to find a tying score but Ouellette, who finished the game with 35 saves, held the home team at bay to grab his sixth win of the year and send the Everblades off with their third victory over their in-state rivals.
Winquist, who finished the game with three points and has five points in his last three games, said that there were encouraging signs that the Solar Bears were on the right track even if the outcome provided no points.
“We’re getting closer every game. We’re playing good. I could be wrong but I think we’ve outshot every team by quite a few shots [during the losing streak],” Winquist said. “It’s going to turn around and we’re going to get one win, two wins, three wins and just go on a streak. We’ve just got to keep working and hope for the best.”
Notes: Orlando outshot Florida 38-26 in the game, holding the Everblades to just three shots in the final period… Florida went 1-for-6 on the power play while Orlando ended up 1-for-5 with the man advantage… Crane (4 goals, 5 assists), Winquist (3 goals, 6 assists) and Valleau (3 goals, 6 assists) are currently tied for the Solar Bears team lead in points… The Everblades now lead the Wawa Sunshine Cup series race with six standings points to one for the Solar Bears… Orlando will head out for a three game road trip to Atlanta and Greenville starting Thursday in Duluth, Georgia.
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