ORLANDO, FLA – For just about a full month, the Orlando Solar Bears have been nomads, earning plenty of road miles during a nine-game road trip. Wednesday night they returned to the friendly confines of the Amway Center and gutted out a clutch victory.
Behind goalie Martin Ouellette’s 27 saves and four more in a shootout, Orlando (23-18-3-2) snuck past the Jacksonville Icemen (24-20-1-2) 3-2 in front of an announced crowd of 4,072. Dylan Fitze and Jonne Tammela each netted goals in regulation before Mike Robinson and Colby McAuley lit the goal light behind Jacksonville netminder Mikhail Berdin with McAuley’s blistering wrist shot being the game winner.
Orlando’s Colby McAuley (left) tangles with Jacksonville’s Garrett Ladd during Wednesday’s contest (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The victory, the Solar Bears fifth in seven meetings with their north Florida rivals, evened the team’s home record at 10-10 as Orlando embarked on its annual extended February home stand. Eleven of the Solar Bears next thirteen games starting Wednesday will be played in front of partisan crowds hoping to see a big run toward a playoff spot.
“Well it’s obviously nice being back at home. The game tonight was not our best but we pulled through and came back from behind,” McAuley said about the victory. “Marty [Ouellette] made some big saves for us and other players stepped up and we got the job done tonight.”
The fans in the stands may not have recognized the Orlando roster with no less than 40 separate transactions having occurred while the Solar Bears were on the road. In fact, three players – blueliner Alexander Kuqali, goalie Clint Windsor and defenseman Zach Frye, who had been recently assigned to Orlando by the AHL’s San Jose Barracudas – hit the ice in Central Florida for the first time.
The home team jumped out quickly, dominating the game’s initial four plus minutes of play. The Solar Bears poured six quick shots on Berdin, a Winnipeg Jets prospect, before the Icemen knew what had hit them. Berdin bought Jacksonville just enough time to find its game and open the scoring at 5:38 of the first period when Garrett Ladd cleaned up the rebound of his own shot, beating Ouellette for his seventh goal of the season.
Orlando’s response came rather quickly. Just 50 seconds after Ladd’s tally, Dylan Fitze, who was playing in his first game since coming off a three-game suspension, converted an Icemen turnover into his seventh of the year. After Jacksonville’s Everett Clark lost the puck, Fitze fired a shot from the face-off circle to Berdin’s left. The netminder made the save but Fitze was able to bat the puck out of midair and into the back of the cage.
The remainder of the opening frame went by with no other goals being scored but its was not for lack of chances. By the time the horn sounded to send the teams to the intermission, they had combined for 23 shots on net with 15 coming off of Solar Bears sticks.
“I think we started pretty well. To be honest, I think we controlled the first period,” Tammela said.
Ouellette and Berdin continued to be hot in the second period, matching save for save throughout much of the stanza. Each had a highlight stop, Ouellette’s coming on a one-on-one confrontation with Jacksonville’s Dajon Mingo while Berdin’s was a left pad stop on a shot by the recently hot blade of the Solar Bears’ Tayler Thompson.
Orlando’s Trevor Olson (white, center) posts up in front of Jacksonville goalie Mikhail Berdin during Wednesday’s first period (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Only one shot found its way across the goal line in the period. Six minutes and eight seconds into the frame, Icemen forward David Broll, who once played in Orlando while in the Toronto Maple Leafs system, set up teammate Garet Hunt for the captain’s fifth goal of the season. Broll found some room coming off the half boards and hit Hunt with a pass in the low slot. Hunt, who is known more for being an agitator, quickly turned the puck on net and beat Ouellette.
Through forty minutes, the teams were separated by that one goal while Orlando held a 25-16 shot advantage. There was however one stat that seemed a bit odd for a Solar Bears – Icemen encounter: the penalty sheet was completely empty as neither side was whistled for an infraction through two periods.
“I think it was great. I think that’s the way a game should be reffed,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said when asked if it was strange to see no penalties called.”It was hard nosed. Everybody was physical but there was nothing cheap going on. I thought the ref [Stan Szczurek] did a great job tonight.”
Still looking for the equalizer, Orlando opened the third period on the hunt and found what it was searching for. It came 4:12 in when McAuley sent the puck back to Mike Monfredo at the point. The Solar Bears captain lit up a shot that Tammela, who was standing at the top of the crease, sent sailing over Berdin with a redirect for his 12th goal of the year.
Orlando’s Jonne Tammela (17, center) celebrates his game-tying goal with teammates Alex Schoenborn (36), Matthew Spencer (42) and Mike Monfredo (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“Colby played the puck to the point to Fredo [Monfredo] and he saw that I was at the net,” Tammela, a native of Yliveska, Finland, said about the tying goal. “I was just trying to do a screen and be there.It was a good shot and I got my stick on it. I didn’t really see where it went but it went in.”
During a span of five minutes from the 8:03 to 13:19 marks of the frame, Szczurek finally doled out some minor penalties with Orlando getting two power plays sandwiched around one for Jacksonville. On the second Solar Bears opportunity, Corey Kalk took the puck hard to the net and squeezed it across the line but the rookie forward had the goal negated for goalie interference.
Neither side came close after Kalk’s near score, sending the game to overtime. In the extra period, Berdin (44 saves plus three more in the shootout) stood on his head. He took a game-winner away from Fitze with a sliding pad save and then denied Tammela on back-to-back chances in close. Ouellette had just one save to make but it was a big one as he turned away Scott Dornbrock. Moments later, Orlando’s Frye had a golden opportunity when he dragged the puck around Berdin but missed the wide open net.
In the shootout, neither team was successful in the regulation three rounds so on to sudden death rounds it went. In round four, Orlando’s Robinson went top shelf to put the Solar Bears in front but Jacksonville’s Cody Fowlie was able to beat Ouellette to send the skills competition to a fifth round. That was where McAuley drove in and fired the puck past the goalie’s glove side to again put the home team up.
Ouellette then sealed the deal by stopping Broll to give Orlando the victory and the extra point.
Afterwards, Berehowsky lauded Ouellette for the way he has played since returning from the Solar Bears AHL affiliate in Syracuse.
Orlando netminder Martin Ouellette (white) stops Jacksonville’s David Broll in round five of Wednesday’s shootout win (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“He’s [Ouellette] always played at the top level. He’s a great goalie and we’re very fortunate to have him,” Berehowsky said. “Tampa signed a good goalie there. We love having him play and he’s a great guy as well. He’s the total package. He’s a real pro.”
Asked about the importance of the stretch of home games, McAuley said that each and every one of them is important because of the two points at stake for every win.
“Every game matters. Every point matters. It started tonight [and] we got the extra point against them,” McAuley said. “Like I said before, each game is huge against a divisional team [opponent]. It definitely started out tonight.”
Notes: Orlando went 0-for-2 on the power play while Jacksonville went 0-for-1… The Solar Bears improved their record to 8-0-3-0 when going beyond regulation including 2-0 in shootouts… McAuley’s assist extended his point streak to eight games (3 goals, 8 assists) while Monfredo pushed his streak to three games (1 goal, 2 assists) with his helper on Tammela’s tally… The two teams will meet again on Friday night in Orlando before heading up to Jacksonville on Saturday… ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin attended Wednesday night’s game… During the second intermission, the Solar Bears paid tribute to longtime season ticket member Ann O’Brien who lost her battle with cancer on Tuesday. The moving tribute included a slide show of photographs and ended with a jersey with a ribbon placed on her season ticket seat.
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