GREENVILLE, SC – After being denied a playoff-clinching win by the Greenville Swamp Rabbits on Friday night, the Orlando Solar Bears returned to the scene of the crime at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Sunday afternoon looking to pay the Rabbits back and move closer to securing home ice in the first round of the 2019 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs.
It took a little bit of time but eventually the Solar Bears got to feast on some rabbit stew on their way back home.
Led by Otto Somppi who had a pair of goals and a Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist and fight) from Dylan Fitze, the visiting Solar Bears (38-25-4-1, 81 points) got that sweet taste of payback with a 5-2 victory over Greenville (23-40-3-3, 52 points) in front of an announced crowd of 4,726 on Fan Appreciation Day. Mathieu Foget notched hos 20th goal of his rookie season and Alex Schoenborn added his 10th of the year for Orlando, which drew within two points of locking up second place in the ECHL’s South Division with four games remaining.
The victory also provided a couple more talking points. The first was the second straight solid performance by goalie Connor Ingram. Orlando’s netminder stopped 31 of 33 Swamp Rabbits shots for his second win in less than 24 hours. The other was the play of the Solar Bears penalty killers who blanked Greenville on seven attempts – the third consecutive game in which the PK units had produced a clean sheet – as well as netting a pair of short-handed goals for the third time this season, two of them coming during the month of March.
Despite having one of the worst records in the league, the Swamp Rabbits had played the Solar Bears tough all season and Sunday was no exception. However, Orlando did strike first in the contest and it did not take very long to get it done.
Just 1:17 after the opening faceoff, Fitze worked the puck down to Mitch Hults who then moved up along the half boards to the left of Greenville goalie Garrett Bartus. Hults looked up and saw Foget wide open on the back post and threaded a cross-ice pass to the rookie who sent it into the back of the net for his milestone score.
Despite having two chances with the man advantage, the Solar Bears were not able to extend their lead. The failures allowed the Swamp Rabbits to come back and even things up late in the frame. It came at the 14:42 mark when Danny Elser was in the right place to corral the rebound of a shot by Stephen Pierog and beat Ingram with a shot for his 2nd tally of the year. The score came a mere three seconds after the power play had expired, keeping Orlando’s PK record perfect.
Early in the second following a third missed opportunity with the man advantage, Orlando found itself down a man but as they did on Friday, the visitors turned the disadvantage into instant offense. Cody Donaghey got control of the puck in his end and sent Schoenborn and Troy Bourke away on a two-on-one break. Bourke waited until the right moment before slipping a pass to Schoenborn and the San Jose prospect made no mistakes, roofing a shot over Bartus’shoulder for his 10th of the season and second in as many games.
Still playing a man up, Greenville put some pressure on the Solar Bears and it paid off. Playing off of an offensive zone faceoff, Danny Perez got to the loose puck and drove a shot that went between Ingram’s glove hand arm and his body on the short side to light the lamp. For Perez, it was his first professional goal after signing with the Swamp Rabbits out of the University of Maine.
The team settled into a defensive struggle for the next ten minutes of playing time before the Solar Bears put on a spurt to take control. They scored twice in the final 4:16 of the stanza with the first coming when Donaghey fed a pass to Somppi in the slot where the Finnish rookie shoveled it toward the net. The puck went over Bartus and hit the crossbar but on its way down, the disc hit the goalie in the back and hopped over the goal line for Somppi’s 11th tally of theseason and a 3-2 Orlando lead.
Then with less than a minute to go before the second intermission, Rob Mann hit Fitze with a pass, sendin the young forward streaking toward the Greenville defensive end. Once he got into the faceoff circle to the right of Bartus, Fitze ripped a wrist shot that sizzled its way into the far side top corner of the net for Fitze’s 12th and a 4-2 lead for the Solar Bears heading to the final frame.
Orlando made things hard for itself, taking a pair of penalties in the first 3:34 of the third period but with Ingram zoned in and the penalty killers aggressively taking the Swamp Rabbits out of their rhythm, the score remained where it was.
With time running down late and Schoenborn in the penalty box, the Swamp Rabbits pulled Bartus (32 saves) to try to parlay a two-man advantage into a momentum building score. That goal never came and the Solar Bears capitalized for their second man down tally when Mike Monfredo sent the puck all the way down the ice. Somppi took advantage by outracing and our muscling two Swamp Rabbits to gain control and score into the empty cage for his second of the game and 12th of the season.
Tempers got a bit out of control in the final minute when Orlando’s Shaquille Merasty and Greenville’s Luke Ripley squared off in a punch-filled brawl. While that was going on, Fitze got under the skin of Brody Silk and the pair dropped the gloves, allowing Fitze to earn his hat trick named after the Detroit Red Wings legend and Hockey Hall of Fame member. Once order was restored, the game finished quietly as the Solar Bears ended their road trip with a 3-2 record.
Orlando now faces a four games in six days gauntlet to finish the regular season. That run begins Tuesday when the third place Jacksonville Icemen come calling at the Amway Center. looking to close the gap and possibly wrest the second seed away from their in-state rivals. After Atlanta visits the City Beautiful on Thursday, the Solar Bears will head to southwest Florida to take on the Florida Everblades before returning home to again host the Icemen on Sunday, April 7th to put a bow on the 2018-19 season and head to the post-season.
Notes: Final shots were 37-33 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Swamp Rabbits finished 0-for-7… Schoenborn’s goal allowed him to extend his point streak to two games while giving him his 50th professional career point (20 goals, 30 assists)… Bourke (three game assist streak) and Chris LeBlanc (assist, three game points) also extended personal streaks… The three goal second period was the Solar Bears 11th this season… Orlando pushed its record when leading after two periods to a perfect 27-0-0-0… The Solar Bears finished the season series with Greenville with a 5-3-1-0 record.
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