GREENVILLE, SC – Coming into Friday night’s game at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, the Orlando Solar Bears were riding a streak of five straight games with at least a point and three consecutive victories including a pair over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. All but the most recent game on Tuesday in Duluth, Georgia were at the Amway Center.
Little did the Solar Bears know that the Swamp Rabbits were waiting at home ready to pounce with some revenge in their collective hearts.
Led by captain Bretton Cameron’s first hat trick in some four years, Greenville (25-18-4-1, 55 points) was able to take down Orlando (24-16-5-2, 55 points) 5-3 in front of an announced crowd of 4,763 on “Stick It to Cancer Night”. The win by the Swamp Rabbits allowed the home team to pull even with the Solar Bears in the standings but based on the third tie-breaker (goal differential), Orlando maintained its listing as the number two team in the South division.
The visitors had more jump in their skates as the game opened up, putting Greenville goalie Mackenzie Skapski to the test right away. Chris Crane and Joe Perry had golden opportunities to put the Solar Bears in front but Skapski had other ideas, making saves on the two Orlando snipers.
Solar Bears netminder Ryan Massa was not very busy early on, having to make just two saves in the first ten minutes of the first period. Unfortunately for him and his teammates, the third shot was a killer. The play started when Nick Betz ran the puck around the boards to the back of the net. Cameron was there to accept the pass and quickly swung around the post and tucked the puck under Massa’s pads for his 14th goal of the season and a 1-0 lead that the Swamp Rabbits took to the first intermission.
Playing with the lead, Greenville quickly increased the margin to two goals just a minute into the middle frame. Taking advantage of a three-on-one break, some fancy passing between Brandon Alderson and Joe Houk led to Houk going blocker side for his 11th of the year.
Orlando needed a response and that is exactly what head coach Drake Berehowsky’s troops gave him. At the 4:30 mark of the period, Shane Conacher lofted a pass toward the Greenville end that Milos Bubela was able to get to first. He proceeded to drift a pass to the slot where Mason Marchment showed his great hands by collecting the puck and lifting a backhander over Skapski for the sixth goal of his rookie season.
Two minutes and 29 seconds later, the Solar Bears were able to pull even. Patrick Watling and Crane jumped out on an odd-man rush. Watling held the puck until the right moment when he laid a perfect pass to Crane for a one-time blast that found the back of the net for Crane’s 12th of the year.
The goalies regained control of things through the middle of the stanza, each trying to top the other. In one crazy sequence, Skapski robbed Watling on a clean break-in and seconds later Massa did the same to Greenville’s Michael Joly. Later, Orlando had a 2-on-none break during a penalty kill but the Swamp Rabbits netminder and New York Rangers prospect saved the day.
It looked like the game would be tied at the intermission but the Swamp Rabbits still had something up their sleeves. With 1:15 left before the break, Joly set up Ahti Oksanen for a quick wrist shot that whistled past Massa for the rookie’s 12th tally of the season. Then playing with a power play in the final minute, Cameron collected his second of the game when Alderson nailed a shot off the glass and the rebound came to the Swamp Rabbits captain and he popped it home to give Greenville a 4-2 lead.
As hard as Orlando tried to push to draw closer in the third period, Greenville’s defense led by Skapski was in full denial mode. Nothing the Solar Bears did seemed to work until a late power play opportunity led to a blast from the point by Chris Bradley that beat Skapski low to the glove side for the defenseman’s 3rd goal.
That would be a close as the Solar Bears would get in the contest. Berehowsky pulled Massa with just under a minute left but Cameron killed all hopes for a comeback with his hat trick goal into the empty net with 33 seconds remaining.
Notes: Cameron’s hat trick was his first since January 17th, 2013 when he accomplished the fete against Gwinnett (now Atlanta)… Skapski finished the game with 34 saves to pick up the win while Massa made 29 saves in suffering the loss… Neither team’s power play was effective as the Solar Bears finished 1-for-6 and the Swamp Rabbits 1-for-5… Orlando’s Darik Angeli played in his 100th career pro game, celebrating with an assist that upped his current point streak to seven games(4 goals, 4 assists)… Bradley (3 games), Conacher (3 games), Crane (3 games) and Perry (3 games) all kept scoring steaks alive… The two teams will meet for the final time in Greenville on Saturday night.
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