ORLANDO, FL – Facing adversity is almost a daily occurance in professional sports. How a team responds and deals with difficult situations can be used as a defining tool to determine whether that squad is simply good or destined for greater things. Saturday night at the Amway Center, the Orlando Solar Bears faced what could be argued as one of those defining moments.
Solar Bears goalie Mackenzie Skapski (center) made 32 saves through overtime and three more in the shootout (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
It may not have been easy but the Solar Bears passed the test.
Rookie J.J. Piccinich score the game-winning goal and goalie Mackenzie Skapski made 32 saves and three more in the deciding skills competition as Orlando (23-24-5-1, 52 points) edged the Worcester Railers (22-21-4-3, 51 points) 2-1 in a shootout in front of an announced crowd of 7,637. With the win, the Solar Bears took the weekend series between the two teams by a two games to one count.
“I thought it was a good game. They have a good team, we have a good team so it makes for good hockey,” Orlando head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said. “It was entertaining and hopefully the fans left here knowing that we gave 100 percent.”
Every point in the standings at this time of year is important and with both teams fighting for playoffs spots, the contest was guaranteed to be a hard fought battle in light of the split of the first two games. For the Solar Bears, it was an opportunity to respond to a tough loss on Friday and win the hearts of the fans as a large crowd filled the Amway Center for the Solar Bears annual “Hockey Fights Cancer” night.
The Railers were aggressive from the opening faceoff, taking advantage of an early power play to test Skapski. He made four stops in the first half of the first period to keep the Solar Bears on level footing with the visitors.
A bit of bad luck bit the home team reared its ugly head nine minutes into the stanza andit cost the Solar Bears. When one of its defensemen fell at the Worcester blueline, it allowed the Railers to break out on a three-on-one counter attack. The rush concluded with a textbook bit of tic-tac-toe passing and eventually a score by T.J. Syner, his fourth of the season, to put the visitors up 1-0 at the 9:18 mark.
At the other end of the ice, the Solar Bears were having a tough time generating offense. They managed just three pucks on Worcester goalie Mitch Gillam in more than 19 minutes of action.
With less than ten seconds left before the first intermission, the Solar Bears finally dented Gillam’s armor. Josh Winquist skated down the sideboards to Gillam’s left and found a seam to make a perfect cross-ice pass to defenseman Mike Monfredo who had a lane to the net. Monfredo collected the feed and cut to the net, making a forehand-backhand move before tucking the puck into the net for his fourth of the season and a tie score.
The effort that Monfredo put into getting the goal, especially after needing more than two dozen stitches for a skate cut at the start of the week, did not go unnoticed by his teammates.
“He battles every night. You can always count on him [Monfredo] to bring his best effort. That’s all you can ask for,” fellow defenseman and team captain Sean Zimmerman said. “Consistant, hard-working, always doing the right thing. He’s a staple back there.”
From that point on, the game became a battle of wills between Skapski and Gillam. As the teams tried to open up their offenses,the two netminders buckled down and put on a show worthy of a post-season matchup. Gillam was tested early by two close in shots by Orlando’s Adam Phillips and moments later Skapski denied the Railers’ Chris Langkow. The teams combined for 22 shots in the middle frame but none of them found the back of the net.
Even Berehowsky, who played defense in the NHL, enjoyed the battle within the war.
“I thought it was great. They played great,” Berehowsky said about the goalies. “Skaps [Skapski] made big saves for us and Gilly [Gillam] made alot of saves for them.”
Tempers flared several times during Saturday’s game between Orlando and Worcester (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
As the game progressed into the third period, it was apparent that the next goal was going to be huge. Both teams buckled down on defense, limiting the chances and allowing their goalie to makes saves. Special teams also played a key role as the Solar Bears killed off a double minor that bridged the second into the third. When overtime started, Orlando again found itself killing off a penalty but once again the Solar Bears stood tall. Late in the extra period, Gillam (22 saves) turned aside a shot and in the blink of an eye, Worcester’s Nick Saracino was racing in on Skapski only to have the netminder turn him away.
After a scoreless first round of the shootout, Winquist opened round two by beating Gillam to the glove side. That goal was answered by Kelley who went five-hole to even things up. Round three saw both goalies come up big. Then in round four – the first sudden death round – Piccinich used a similar move to Winquist’s, going top corner on the glove side for the eventual winner.
“The ice was kind of getting chewed up by the end of the game. A couple of guys tried making moves but it just wasn’t working, not because of the players but because the puck was hopping,” Piccinich said. “Winny [Winquist] had success shooting so I didn’t know I was going to go right away and then once I got the nod, I said I’ve got to shoot this and I was lucky enough to get it over the glove.”
It all came down to Skapski who stopped Saracino to seal the victory.
Skapski said he knew that he had to have a big game in order to help the Solar Bears get back on the right track. With that mission accomplished, he sees a good week of focus in practice as a key to continuing in a positive direction.
“We’re in one of those funks right now where we win one, lose one and we’re on the positive side of it right now. The key is to keep moving forward and doing the right things,” Skapski said. “In practice this week, I think we’re going to work on efficiency, pushing each other and being urgent on things – just working on the right things regardless of the outcome. If we can put that in the last nineteen games here, I say we win more than we lose.”
For Zimmerman, the effort put in by the defensive corps and the rest of the team on Saturday was an encouraging sign that things may be starting to turn in a good way for the Solar Bears as they push for the playoffs.
“I’ve seen that as soon as we give up a goal, it kind of goes downhill really quickly from there. We’ve said it before – teams are going to score goals and [to] just stay positive,” Zimmerman said. “Tonight we followed through with that. We ended up tying it at the end of the first period and then we battled all game.”
Notes: Final shots favored Worcester by a count of 33-24… The Solar Bears blanked the Railers power play on seven attempts. Conversely, Orlando’s power play went 0-for-4… In roughly two and a half games against his former team, Gillam made 79 saves on 81 shots faced… The Solar Bears are off until Wednesday when the Florida Everblades visit the Amway Center for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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