ESTERO, FLA – As Friday night’s Game 1 of the ECHL’s South Division Finals began overtime, injured Orlando Solar Bears forward Trevor Olson told play-by-play broadcaster Jesse Liebman that “no shot is a bad shot in overtime”.
It took all of 55 seconds for Olson’s words to find the ears of Colby McAuley and he made his teammate look like Nostradamus.
McAuley, a San Jose Sharks prospect, scored his second goal of the playoffs on a shot from the boards to give the Solar Bears a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the host Florida Everblades in front of an announced crowd of 3,764 at Hertz Arena. Hunter Fejes continued his torrid scoring touch, netting the game-tying goal midway through the third period and goalie Connor Ingram made 29 saves to collect his fifth straight win as Orlando took a 1-0 lead in the best-of seven series.
Game two is set for Saturday night in Estero.
The game-winning sequence started with an offensive zone faceoff. As the Everblades tried to clear the puck out along the boards, Solar Bears defenseman Zach Frye, another San Jose prospect, held it in and sent it along to Mitch Hults. Hults, a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, rang it around the boards toward the right side of Florida goalie Callum Booth. McAuley collected the disc at the goal line, turned and fired on the net where it went between Booth’s skates and in to the delight of his team and the many fans who made the trek from Central Florida for the game.
The finish was the icing on the top of a game that was vintage playoff hockey. The two bitter rivals spent most of the opening period in a defensive struggle that was part feeling out process and mostly a goaltender’s delight. Both Ingram and Booth were spot on in the first frame, each posting a clean sheet as Ingram turned away eleven Everblades shots while Booth, who took a two game winning streak into the contest, denied all eight opportunities by the Solar Bears.
Early in the middle stanza, Orlando’s Ingram was tagged for a slashing minor, giving Florida its third consecutive man advantage opportunity of the night. Although it did not pay dividends, the power play did give the Everblades puck control which did lead to a score. Just three seconds after Dylan Fitze, who had been sent off to serve the penalty, was released from the penalty box, Florida forward John McCarron made a pass from below the goal line to Riley Weselowski who was cruising down the slot.Weselowski skated into a blast that beat Ingram cleanly for his first goal of the 2019 post-season and a lead for the home team. Joe Cox, who had not played since taking a wicked hit from Jacksonville’s Garet Hunt in the first round, picked up the secondary helper on the score.
Mired in sluggish play that translated into just ten shots on net in the first 30 minutes of play, Orlando finally began to get its skating legs and offense untracked in the later stages of the second period, making Booth work much harder than he had for most of the game to that point. The Everblades netminder was tested by Solar Bears forward Jonne Tammela and came up huge to keep his team in front.
At the other end of the ice, Ingram was doing his best to hold the defecit steady, making one of his best saves of the first forty minutes when Justin Auger drove the net and tried to jam the puck home. Ingram stood his ground and made the stop, one of eight he tallied in the frame to nine by Booth.
The Everblades nearly netted an insurance score early in the third when Tommy Thompson got loose for a drive. His shot got past Ingram but it rang off the crossbar and caromed harmlessly away.
The Solar Bears began to push harder and harder in an attempt to find the equalizer. They began to pile up shots and scoring chances, none better than a sizzling wrister by Brent Pedersen that Booth calmly snared to maintain the shutout.
Orlando’s determination to break the ice finally came to fruition midway through the stanza. Thanks to some pressure, the puck ended up with Troy Bourke in the corner to Booth’s left. Bourke sent it out front where Fejes banged it home for his team-leading fifth goal of the playoffs to even the score at 1-1 with 10:04 remaining in regulation. The score also tied him with former Solar Bear Denver Manderson for most goals in a single playoff season by an Orlando player that was set in 2017.
Both sides had glorious chances in the final ten minutes of the third. First up it was McCarron, who has in the past bedeviled the Solar Bears, who put a shot on Ingram. Ingram did not get all of the puck and it slipped past him, sliding ever so close to the goal line before the netminder dove back to snatch it.
A couple of minutes later, Booth headed out of his net to play a loose puck before an on-charging Orlando player could get to it. The biscuit ended up in the hands of the Solar Bears behind the net and led to a pass out front to Chris LeBlanc. Before Booth could get back, Everblades blueliner Ben Masella rushed into the crease and stopped LeBlanc’s attempt at what could have been the game-winning tally.
Neither netminder gave an inch in the closing minutes, sending the game to extra time. From there it was not long before McAuley’s prayer – and that of the Solar Bears – was answered.
Booth was solid in between the pipes for the Everblades, registering 25 saves in suffering his first loss of the post-season. The loss was also the first felt by Florida on its home ice this playoff year. Meanwhile, Orlando collected its fourth consecutive road win, three of them coming in the first round against South Carolina, to establish a new franchise mark along with a new team record of five straight post-season victories.
Notes: Final shots were 30-27 in favor of Florida… The Solar Bears went 0-for-1 on the power play while the Everblades went 0-for-3… Bourke’s assist on Fejes’ goal extended his point streak to five games (1 goal, 4 assists), allowing him to pass Chris Crane (April 22-26, 2017) and set a new Solar Bears’ franchise record for longest post-season point streak… The victory was the fastest that Orlando had seen a playoff overtime game end, easily beating the old mark of 5:13 when Eric Baier won Game 5 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals series the Solar Bears played against Cincinnati on April 26, 2014. It was also only the second time in the franchise’s ECHL history that the Solar Bears had come back to win a playoff game after trailing following two periods, the first being the very same Game 5 versus Cincinnati back in 2014… McAuley’s game-winning goal gave him a three game point streak (2 goals, 1 assist)… With his win, Ingram established new Solar Bears records for most wins by a goalie and most wins in a single playoff year, eclipsing the mark set by Cal Heeter of four from last year’s sweep of South Carolina… Orlando is now 5-2 all time in post-season games that have gone to overtime.
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