LOVELAND, CO – Prior to heading out on the team’s road trip west, Orlando Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky said that he hoped that the team would have some good bonding time. Friday night at the Budweiser Events Center, that bonding started off in impressive fashion.
Orlando goalie Ryan Massa (left) and defenseman Eric Baier defend against a Colorado shot (PHN photo by Terry Sanford)
Keyed by a pair of special teams goals, the Solar Bears (18-10-4-2, 42 points) scored three unanswered tallies to erase a two-goal deficit and defeat the Colorado Eagles (19-10-1-3, 42 points) 4-3 in front of an announced crowd of 4,715. The win broke a four game winless streak for Orlando and allowed the Solar Bears to keep pace with the South division leading Florida Everblades who defeated Manchester Friday night.
Denver Manderson started the run with a short-handed tally 7:53 into the final frame and defenseman Brenden Miller ended it five minutes and thirty-seven seconds later with a power play score – his fourth goal in as many games – that put the visitors ahead to stay. In between, Alex Gacek scored a pretty wraparound goal to even the score.
Playing for the first time in the Centennial State, Orlando came out roaring on offense in the opening period. The Solar Bears poured shot after shot on Eagles netminder Clarke Saunders, collecting ten by the time the frame was half over on the way to a 16-4 advantage in the stanza. Had it not been for Saunders, the home team would have been in a lot of trouble.
Just shy of four minutes in, the Solar Bears got the game’s opening goal. Colorado tried to relieve some pressure in its defensive zone by clearing the puck to center ice but the attempt was duffed. The puck slid its way to Orlando rookie defenseman Nik Brouillard who collected it, took a stride to the top of the face-off circle to Saunders’ left and blew a rocket past the netminder for his sixth goal of the season.
Getting the start in net for the Solar Bears, Ryan Massa did not have a busy first period but the saves he did make were clutch. Two in particular, both of them on Colorado’s Matt Garbowsky late in the frame, allowed Orlando to hold that slim one-goal lead heading into the first intermission.
The teams went back and forth early in the second period with both goalies standing tall. Orlando’s Chase Witala was hit with a slashing penalty at the 7:47 mark and the host Eagles took full advantage. With time winding down on the power play, Josh Nicholls drove the puck at the net where Garbowsky deftly redirected it between Massa’s legs for his eleventh of the season and a 1-1 tie.
Colorado’s Casey Pierro-Zabotel (white) follows the puck with Orlando forward Eric Faille (back) and goalie Ryan Massa (PHN photo by Terry Sanford)
Late in the frame, Massa took a sure goal away from Nicholls with his catching glove. He was not so lucky in the final minute of the period when Michael Sdao shot from the right point was stopped by the Orlando netminder but Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who historically has been a nemesis for the Solar Bears, pounced on the rebound and netted his twelfth goal of the year with 48 seconds left to give Colorado a 2-1 lead heading to the third.
Things looked bleak for Orlando when the Eagles’ Mason Geertsen put a perfect pass onto the blade of teammate Ryan Harrison. Harrison ripped a drive past some traffic and into the back of the net for his sixth of the season at the 3:46 mark of the final frame.
When the Solar Bears’ Miller went to the penalty box at the 6:52 point of the period, Colorado had a chance to just about put the game on ice with another power play score. Instead of that happening, Orlando struck back to close the gap. The play started when Brouillard, who finished the game with three points, stole the puck and sent it to center ice where Manderson tracked it down. Manderson busted into the Eagles defensive end and using a teammate as a decoy, beat Saunders with a perfectly placed shot to the top corner on the short side of the net just above the goalie’s left shoulder.
Orlando’s Austin Block (right) celebrates Denver Manderson’s short-handed goal Friday night (PHN photo by Terry Sanford)
The score, Manderson’s eleventh of the season and his first short-handed score, drew the momentum in the direction of the Solar Bears and they took full advantage. Just over a minute later, Gacek showed everyone why he was an important acquisition for Orlando. Grabbing the puck at center ice, he turned on the jets and sped into the Colorado end. He stayed along the boards, going behind the net and coming out the other side to stuff the puck past Saunders on a wraparound for his third goal with Orlando and eleventh overall to know the score at 3-3.
At the 12:01 mark, Nicholls took a penalty that put the Solar Bears on their fourth power play of the game. Scoreless in the previous attempts, the visitors connected when it counted as Austin Block laid a perfect feed over to Miller who got everything he had into a one-time blast from the right point. The puck appeared to hit an Eagles defender in front and redirected past Saunders for Miller’s fifth of the season and the lead.
Colorado put on a furious attack in the final 6:30 of regulation looking for the game-tying score. The Eagles came close on several occasions but just missed connections a number of times. When they did put the puck on net, Massa was there to make the save to preserve the lead and get the win.
Notes: Massa finished the game with 18 saves on 21 shots faced while Saunders stopped 32 of 36 shots in suffering the loss… Orlando ended the game 1-for-4 with the man advantage while Colorado went 1-for-3… The Solar Bears welcomed forward Alexandre Carrier back to the franchise after acquiring him from Utah to complete the trade that sent Johnny McInnis to the Grizzlies. Carrier played 16 games with the Solar Bears during the 2014-15 campaign… The two teams will meet in game two of their three-game set Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.MT/9:05 p.m. ET.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at terry.sanford@prohockeynews.com
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