ORLANDO, FLA – Coming off a road trip where they garnered six of a possible eight points, the Orlando Solar Bears returned to their home sweet home to start a six game homestand against the Norfolk Admirals. While its goaltending and penalty killing stayed strong away from home, Orlando was hoping that being in the friendly confines of its own building would perk up the offense.
Instead, the Solar Bears once again found not enough goals while the defense and special teams failed them.
Orlando’s Tristin Langan (8, orange) battles for position with Norfolk’s Josh Holmstrom during Tuesday night’s first period (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Led by a goal and an assist by Johnny Coughlin, the visiting Admirals (5-12-3-0) broke open a tie with two third period goals to down Orlando (5-8-3-1) by a final score of 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 4,839 at the Amway Center on Tuesday night. Mikhail Shalagin and Tristin Langan each scored a goal in the middle frame to help the Solar Bears erase a two-goal deficit but their sticks went silent in the final twenty minutes for the third consecutive contest and tenth time this season.
“There’s parts of our game that I liked but we’re not scoring goals. We’re not going to the net,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky explained when asked to provide a synopsis of the contest. “In the second period, we out-chanced them in the house (front of the net) and got rewarded for it. Until we learn to go to the paint and shoot puck and get hungrier, we’re going to have trouble scoring goals.”
Breaking out their new orange third jerseys for the first time, the Solar Bears entered the game coming off of two gut-wrenching overtime losses to a tough Utah Grizzlies squad at the end of the trip west. They brought with them a roster that looked markedly different that it had the last time the home fans had seen it with five new faces. That list included a couple of familiar ones who had been away for a bit in defenseman Oleg Sosunov, who was assigned to Orlando Tuesday morning, and veteran blueliner Blake Kessel, who was making a return to the City Beautiful for the first time since playing for the team in 2015.
Standing on the other side of the ice were the Admirals, who although they were carrying a sub-.500 record were showing signs of life with wins in two of their last three outings. Norfolk also had a trump card in its hand, having beaten Orlando at the Amway in the second game of the season a little over a month ago.
The Solar Bears came out hitting and it cost them early on as Trevor Olson was tagged for an elbowing penalty just 1:50 after the opening faceoff. It took Norfolk a mere eleven seconds and one shot to get on the scoreboard. It came when Sam Povorozniouk sent the puck down the boards to Josh Holmstrom. With an Orlando defender covering Alex Rodriguez at the top of the crease, Holstrom had plenty of room to advance along the goal line toward the net and goalie Zach Fucale.
As Holstrom drew closer to the cage, the defender chose to play the puck. That left Rodriguez all alone and available to redirect a pass from Holmstrom into the back of the cage for his seventh goal of the season.
“We know the structure works. We know that when executed it’s done well,” Berehowsky said when asked how he would have advised his defensemen to play that type of situation. “It’s our whole game. It’s the details of our whole game aren’t there right now. We’ll try to do something too fancy, turn the puck over and they put it in the back of our net.”
Orlando goalie Zach Fucale (35, orange) peers around Norfolk forward Ryan Salkeld (16, white) looking for the puck while defenseman Cody Donaghey (44) defends the passing lane (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The Solar Bears controlled the shot board in the first period, something that they had only done previously in five games, by a count of 13-9. Norfolk netminder Roman Durny, who was playing in just his fifth game of the year, looked very polished between the pipes in producing a clean sheet in the opening frame. He also had a bit of good fortune in his favor as well, especially when Olson appeared to have a wide open cage to fire at but hooked his shot wide.
Things got a little worse for the home team early in the second. Playing with a giddyup in his stride, Norfolk’s Charlie O’Connor chased down a long pass in the Orlando end and dropped the puck to teammate Ryan Salkeld. As O’Connor went to the net, Salkeld fired a shot that Fucale stopped. The rebound slid out into the slot where O’Connor got control and fired it home for his third of the year and a 2-0 lead for the Admirals at the 4:03 mark.
Facing what looked like a long night that was about to get even longer, Orlando needed a spark and got it less than two minutes after O’Connor’s tally. It came when an ill-advised attempt at a clearing pass by the Admirals was picked off by Solar Bears forward Colby McAuley. Durny made the save on McAuley’s shot but Shalagin was in the right place to shovel the rebound in with a backhander for his third of the season to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Durny kept the Norfolk lead in tact through the middle stages of the middle frame with his best save coming when he snared a shot by Orlando’s Dylan Fitze on an odd man rush.
Not to be denied, Orlando continued to press and was rewarded with the game-tying score at the 13:39 mark. On a transition attack, Fitze sent the puck wide to Ryan Lohin. Lohin waited for a passing lane and put the disc toward the net. Fitze, who had continued to drive toward the crease, redirected the pass into Durny’s pads. It kicked off the pillows to Langan who stuffed it into the back of the net for his third of the year.
Orlando’s Tristin Langan (8, orange) celebrates his second period goal with teammate Dylan Fitze (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“Leading up to that [goal], we were getting a lot of chances so we knew it was coming,” Langan said about his tally. “Lowsey [Lohin] made a good play, going cross-ice to Fitzy and he got his stick on it. Luckily it bounced to me and it went in.”
Orlando dodged a bullet early in the third when it killed off a Norfolk power play. When Fucale (26 saves) robbed Coughlin soon after and Roman Ammirato a bit later, Solar Bears fans thought that maybe this was the night that the team’s fortunes would turn positive.
But it was not to be. At the 11:14 mark, Shalagin was called for a hook, setting the Admirals up with their fifth man advantage of the night. That advantage became the game winning goal when Coughlin stole the puck near the boards, curled into the faceoff circle to Fucale’s left and beat the netminder between the legs for his sixth of the season. It took a mere thirteen seconds for the play to develop – two ticks later than the first Norfolk score back in the opening period – and it was all the visitors would need.
The Solar Bears had an opportunity to even things again when they went on the power play with 8:24 remaining in regulation. They forced Durny to make five stops during the man advantage and then watched in agony when just after the penalty expired, LeBlanc fanned on a chance at an open net and saw the puck kick off his skate to the goalie who covered up to stop play.
Berehowsky tried twice to pull Fucale for an extra attacker. The first attempt lasted all of nine seconds before play was whistled down and a faceoff set in the neutral zone. The second go did not fare any better as with the goalie out, Zach Franko ended the suspense with an empty net goal with 1:11 remaining for his third of the year.
Asked why the momentum from tying the game in the second period did not carry over to the third, Langan said that frustration with missed opportunities kicked in.
“We weren’t banging [converting] our chances in the first and second and I think we were getting a little mad at each other and mad that we weren’t scoring in the third,” Langan said. “They scored on their chances on the power play and we didn’t and that’s how it went.”
Solar Bears forwards Mikhail Shalagin (53, left) and Colby McAuley celebrate Shalagin’s second period goal Tuesday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Berehowsky, as he has been saying all along, said that he is continuing to find a combination that will win on a regular basis. For his part, Kessel, who has been in town for a few days working with the injured players who did not make the trip west, said that he believes that a solid team chemistry is not that far away.
“Tonight was a little bit of a setback but I think the team chemistry is good and I think we’re going to keep growing. I think we’re off just a little bit on timing,” Kessel said. “I think as long as we buy into the system and everyone does their job, I think we do have the talent here and I think that once everyone gets on the same page a little bit better, especially me coming in – I have to figure out how to play my role – I think we’re going to take off here.”
The next step will come Saturday when South Carolina returns to the City Beautiful for a 7 p.m. puck drop. The Stingrays are white hot, sitting atop the South division with a 13-2-0-0 record and a sweep of the Florida Everblades on enemy ice last weekend. South Carolina already has beaten the Solar Bears three times this season.
Notes: Final shots were 37-30 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-2 on the power play while the Admirals went 2-for-5… Orlando’s LeBlanc played in his 135th game as a member of the Solar Bears, putting him ahead of Brady Vail for sole possession of fourth place on the most games played list in team history.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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