Patrick Watling scored the overtime winner with less than a second left Thursday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing / Orlando Solar Bears)
ORLANDO, FLA – In relation to past seasons, the performance of the Orlando Solar Bears at the Amway Center during the 2015-2016 campaign was a roller coaster ride that was equal parts thrilling and frustrating. Thursday night, the team finished its home schedule with a performance that mirrored the year perfectly before ending on arguably the highest high note of the season.
Patrick Watling scored with less than half a second remaining in overtime to give the host Solar Bears (33-28-4-5, 75 points) a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the Florida Everblades (44-23-1-2, 91 points) in front of an announced crowd of 8,226. Watling’s score made a winner out of goalie Rob Madore who made 38 saves, many of them in key situations.
As dramatic a win as the Solar Bears have had all season, it did little to improve the team’s chances of making the lineup for the upcoming ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs. Orlando remained in tenth place in the Eastern conference standings despite the victory, trailing Kalamazoo, Wheeling and Elmira which are tied at 79 points – four points ahead of the Solar Bears.
Still, it was a win that to a man the squad representing Central Florida wanted badly to give to its loyal fans.
“[For] what we put them (fans) through this year, they deserve everything in the world,” Watling said. “They were there with us day in and day out. This was for them.”
Watling’s heroics in the extra period were a direct by-product of Head Coach Anthony Noreen’s willingness to trust his forwards to play all 200 feet of the ice as he had Watling with linemates Brett Findlay and Eric Faille out, leaving his defensemen on the bench for the final shift of overtime.
With time running down, the trio were cycling the puck in the Florida end. Faille drew two defenders and at the last second got the puck to Findlay who put a shot on Everblades goalie Anthony Peters. Peters made the save but the rebound came to Watling who slid it across the goal line with just three tenths of a second to go on the clock. It was so close that a split second later the horn sounded but referee Stephen Reneau emphatically signaled good goal to the delight of the home crowd.
“I don’t think anyone left too disappointed tonight. That’s one of those ones you could draw up,” Noreen said. “It doesn’t get any more thrilling than that.”
The magic for the Solar Bears began 2:21 into the opening period when Brady Vail set up rookie Jack Rodewald for a shot from the circle to Peters’ left that beat the goalie between the legs for his 18th score of the season. A little over three minutes later, Watling directed a shot at the net that Findlay, who was standing right outside the crease, tipped up and over Peters’ left shoulder for his tenth and a two-goal lead.
The buzz from a late first period fight between Orlando defenseman Mark Louis and Florida’s Corey Cowick had barely died down at the break when a fan participating in a promotional contest dialed up a long distance shot from the far blueline at the opposite net. The shot found its mark through the hole in the cardboard covering the face of the net earning the fan, Nick Giovanelli, $100,000 and an ESPN highlight of a lifetime.
All of the good vibes in the building evaporated in a sea of rubber that Madore saw in the middle frame. The veteran goalie was under seige, facing a total of seventeen shots in the period.
The Everblades dented Madore’s armor three times in a span of 2:52 in the back half of the period. Brendan O’Donnell started things by jamming the puck through Madore at the 12:23 mark during a power play. Forty-eight seconds later, Greg Gibson cleaned up the rebound of a Gabriel Desjardins shot for his seventh of the season. O’Donnell finished off the run with a wrister from the slot for his second of the period and fifteenth of the year at 14:15.
While all that was going on at one end, Peters (30 saves) had settled into a groove. He stopped all nine Solar Bears shots in the second and was cruising early in the third when Orlando got its fourth power play of the game seven minutes in. Late in the advantage, a blast from the point by Brenden Miller beat Peters but clipped the crossbar, bounced down and kissed the post but never crossed the line.
The Solar Bears failed on the power play but the pressure continued and eventually paid off. Just past the midpoint of the frame, Miller let go with a bomb that hit the glass behind the Florida net. T.J. Foster got control, wheeled into the face-off circle and sent the puck at Peters. Erik Bradford, who had parked himself in front of the net, tipped the shot through the netminder’s five hole to knot the score at three with his ninth goal of the season.
As the game went into overtime, the pace and intensity grew as both teams tried to end the proceedings early. Peters and Madore traded point-blank saves before the Everblades were hit with a penalty when Matt Willows took down Rodewald at center ice. Peters then committed grand theft, going post to post to rob Foster of a score.
It all led to Noreen’s choice to put three forwards on the ice in the closing seconds – a move that he has made on more than one occasion this year.
“We’ve tried that a lot, three forwards [during] three on three. There was a reason we’ve kept trying [it],” Noreen said. “We felt like those guys had some good reps. They’ve been playing so well lately and just haven’t been rewarded with many goals so [it] was good to see them break out tonight.”
The Solar Bears and Everblades still have some business to finish as they head down Interstate 75 to Estero for the final two games of the season on Friday and Saturday nights. The contests may not mean much in the standings but to the Orlando players there is a lot at stake.
“We’re playing for team, for pride. This is why we show up, to be a better man than the person across from us,” Watling said. “We love playing the game and we don’t care what position [in the standings] we’re in. We’re going to play [it] like its our first game or our last game.”
Contact the author at Don.money@prohockeynews.com
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