Solar Bears sweep Greenville on Cepis OT winner

ORLANDO, FLA – Success in professional sports is measured in two ways: win/loss record and championships. When it comes to victories, as long as a team scores one more run, one more point or one more goal than the other, putting a “W” in the standings means more than the ease with which it was attained.

Jake Cepis scored the game-winning goal Saturday night (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)

Saturday night in front of an announced crowd of 7,724 at the Amway Center, the Orlando Solar Bears got a power play goal from Jake Cepis 2:54 into overtime to beat the Greenville Road Warriors 3-2. It was the second extra time win in as many nights for the Solar Bears (19-14-3-0, 41 points) against their East division rivals and fourth straight victory overall.

Cepis’ blast from just inside the blueline beat Greenville goalie Jeff Malcolm inside the post to the netminder’s right. Defenseman Blake Kessel had started the play by going in deep to play the puck and fed a pass to his teammate who had rotated back to cover the point. The score was Cepis’ eighth goal of the season and fourth in the last four games.

“The team is coming together,” Cepis said. “The biggest thing is we’re putting a full sixty minute game together – not quitting, playing as a team for sixty minutes and that’s really turned it around for us.”

The goal made a winner out of goalie Garret Sparks for the third straight game since returning from a callup to the AHL Toronto Marlies. In posting the shootout and overtime victories, Sparks faced a total of 103 shots on net including 52 on Saturday and stopped 98 of them.

The first period Saturday was pretty close to a carbon copy of Friday’s opening stanza. Greenville pounded Sparks with 17 shots, eleven after the midpoint of the frame. All-Star goalie Jeff Malcolm matched Sparks until the 14:21 mark when Marshall Everson scored his first goal since being traded to the Solar Bears from Gwinnett. The goal was a perfect of everyone doing their jobs as Denver Manderson won an offensive zone faceoff back to Gleason Fournier who fired at the net where Everson redirected it home.

“Denver did a great job winning the draw pretty clean back to Gleason,” Everson said. “He took a smart shot. I had the screen and just kind of got a little piece of it and deflected it up past the goalie.”

Three minutes later, David Broll picked up an assist the hard way, having his own shot blocked off his chin. The puck bounced to Stefan Della Rovere who buried a backhander into the open net to double the lead.

A fight between Orlando’s Carl Nielsen and Greenville’s Emerson Clark 46 seconds into the second had the fans ready for some old school physical hockey but it never materialized. Malcolm was the story in the first half of the period, making key saves on Nick Larson and Jake Cepis. Sparks dominated the back half with back-to-back saves followed later by stops on Paul Rodrigues and Trevor Parkes to keep the Road Warriors off the board.

Greenville (25-14-1-2, 53 points) proceeded to serve up a healthy serving of déjà vu in the third. At the 7:54 mark, Parkes found himself alone at the top of Sparks’ crease and jammed home a pass from Chris McCarthy. A little over two minutes later, Vinny Saponari found Parkes in the slot during a Road Warriors power play and the big winger made the Solar Bears pay with the game-tying score.

“We’re obviously giving up too many shots. A lot of that stems from what we’re doing in the offensive zone, what we’re doing on the rush and what we’re doing in the neutral zone where we’re managing the puck,” Orlando head coach Vince Williams said about his team’s issues with holding leads in the two weekend games. “If we’re not going to get pucks deep and work and sustain pressure, which is what they (Greenville) do every single time, we’re going to give up fifty shots.”

The Solar Bears are off until Tuesday when the South Carolina Stingrays come to Orlando for the first time this season.