ORLANDO, FLA – When a team is struggling to find wins, every bounce and every mistake gets magnified. These days, the Orlando Solar Bears are neither catching any breaks nor are they creating enough opportunities to get out of their funk.And the Florida Everblades are taking full advantage.
Four different Everblades players lit the goal light and goalie Cam Johnson was nearly perfect as Florida (9-4-0-0) defeated the mistake-prone Solar Bears (3-7-1-1) 4-1 in front of an announced crowd of 5,105 at the Amway Center in downtown Orlando on Thursday. Hunter Fejes scored his first goal since November 5th for the home team but all it did was set the stage for Orlando’s fifth straight winless outing at the hands of their bitter rivals, four of them coming in the last nine days.
“I don’t think we played like we’re capable of. I don’t think the compete [level] was there,” a visibly exasperated Drake Berehowsky, Orlando’ Head Coach and General Manager, said following the loss. “I just don’t think we were ready to play.”
Berehowsky’s frustration with his team is well founded. Over the course of the last four contests against Florida, the Solar Bears scored just five goals – an average of barely over one per game. In that same time frame, the Everblades netted fourteen goals including nine in back-to-back wins on Wednesday and Thursday.
Taken a step further, thirteen of Florida’s scores came in either the second and third periods or overtime. By contrast, the Solar Bears had only two goals from the second period on.
Orlando had an opportunity to assert itself just 25 seconds into the opening period when Florida’s Kyle Neuber misplaced some left over aggression from Wednesday night’s meeting and was sent to the penalty box. The Solar Bears failed to capitalize, generating only one shot on the man advantage.
The Everblades opened the scoring thanks to a Solar Bears defensive zone turnover at the 7:22 mark. Cam Maclise forces Orlando to cough up the puck and put it on the stick of Michael Huntebrinker who went top shelf on Sokar Bears netminder Zach Fucale for his seventh goal of the young season.
Needing a quick response to get the home fans into the game, the Solar Bears returned the favor, turning a giveaway into a tally. Fejes and Ivan Kosorenkov teamed up to cause an Everblades mistake that Fejea cashed in, going high to beat Johnson for his third at 7:36.
“That’s what we want as a team we want to bounce back after a goal against,” Fejes said. “It was really a [good] effort by us.
We faced some adversity there and luckily we were able to go into the second period [tied] at 1-1.”
Fejes’ score was only part of the story in the first stanza. The other part of the narrative was the battle between Fucale and Johnson. Despite each allowing a goal, they combined for twenty saves in the period with Orlando’s netminder being the busier of the two in the final twelve minutes of action.
The fortunes of the Solar Bears went from good to bad in the middle frame. The Everblades converted two Orlando errors into what was a commanding lead in the span of four minutes and change.
The eventual game-winning goal came at the 6:18 mark and was stunning to watch. It began with Huntebrinker getting loose for a breakaway. Although Fucale made the original save, the rebound came our a bit too far. Two Somar Bears defenders failed to go to the pluck, allowing Maclise to swoop in and bury a backhander for his third of the year.
The visitors’ lead doubled just past the midway point of the period and game. Yet another Orlando miscue allowed Zach Magwood to take the disc in the neutral zone and race in alone. He got in tight and lifted a backhander past Fucale for his second of the season.
While the Everblades’ offense was getting roiling, their defense was starting to suffocate the Solar Bears. Over the course of the frame, Orlando generates a mere five shots on Johnson with but two coming in the final 13:23 before the intermission.
Although Orlando was able to find its legs in the final stanza, Johnson (22 saves) was not willing to give the Solar Bears a thing. He showed his focus early in the third when he turned away a redirect by Solar Bears captain Mike Monfredo at the crease. Even when a home team player got open in the slot, the Everblades goalie was in the right position to make the stop as he did on Alexey Lipanov.
Berehowsky pulled Fucale (31 saves) with 3:13 left in regulation, hoping for some extended pressure that might create a goal. The Solar Bears’ visions of a stirring comeback were dashed when Florida’s John McCarron forced a turnover at his defensive blue line and skated the puck to the Orlando blue stripe and hit the empty net for the icing on the win at 18:41.
Things nearly got out of hand before the ensuing faceoff when Solar Bears defenseman Taylor Doherty and Everblades forward Arvin Atwal began to threaten each other. Referee Eric Krasnichuk, who had worked Wednesday’s game in Estero, ended both players’ nights with ten minute misconducts. The rest of the time went by uneventfully and Florida headed back home with a four-game sweep in hand.
Asked to analyze what didn’t work against the Everblades, Fejes went straight to the Solar Bears penchant for hurting themselves.
“Turning pucks over at key times. We kind of basically gave them all of their goals these past few games,” Fejes said. “Don’t get me wrong. I mean they’re a good team and they’re our rival but that should motivate us to not give up those kinds of chances. I think a big thing is just playing a full sixty minutes. When we played on the road, we played really good for forty minutes and came out on top [but] then that last twenty, it was like we abandoned everything that we know. That’s something that we can tighten up.”
In an effort to light a fire under his team, Berehowsky promised that changes could be coming ahead of the Solar Bears upcoming four game road trip that starts Saturday in Jacksonville and heads to Idaho and Utah. To that end, as part of a three-team deal, Berehowsky sent forward Jake Marchment to Worcester for Jake Bolton. Bolton was then shipped to Tulsa for defenseman Eric Drapluk.
Asked what Drapluk would bring to the table, Berehowsky brought up both on-ice and leadership skills.
“He’s a high character guy. He ended up being in their top pairing last year,” Berehowsky said. “He’s a physical kid. He can move the puck. We need to be more mobile back there. We have to be quicker to our coverage and be able to shut teams down faster.”
Notes: Final shots were 35-23 in favor of Florida… Each team had three power plays in the contest but came up empty. For Orlando it was its ninth consecutive game without allowing a man advantage score,
Contact the author at Don.Money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedir or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.