MAITLAND, FLA – Just by looking at the ECHL schedule for Sunday afternoon, it would have been reasonable to think that the game between the Orlando Solar Bears and the Idaho Steelheads was simply another game within a 72-game schedule for both teams. That is until one looked at the line that noted the location of the contest: RDV Sportsplex Ice Den. At that point, a run of the mill game became a little bit more than that.
Unfortunately for the host Solar Bears, it ended up being something that they would probably prefer to forget.
Plagued by mistakes and a lack of focus, Orlando (34-22-4-1, 73 points) ended up on the short side of a 4-1 score to the visiting Steelheads (36-22-3-2, 77 points). With the victory, Idaho clinched a spot in the ECHL’s Kelly Cup playoffs for the 22nd time in franchise history while the Solar Bears magic number to reach the postseason for the fifth time in seven seasons stayed at six.
The loss was especially frustrating for Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky after his team’s dominating performance on Saturday night, one that led to a 6-2 victory.
“I don’t think our compete level was there like it was [last night],” a terse Berehowsky said moments after the final buzzer. “And our specialty teams let us down.”
Because of scheduling issues with a pair of concerts and an NBA game between the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks at the Amway Center, the Solar Bears were forced to move the contest to their practice facility. Added to the physical change was the fact that the game would be played on the sheet of ice with the most available seating – the Olympic sized rink – as opposed to the pro rink that the team usually practices on.
The more intimate setting and atmosphere created by the small but enthusiastic crowd of season ticket holders should have been a huge advantage for the Solar Bears. Instead it seemed that the Steelheads, using revenge as a motivating tool, was much more prepared to handle the non-traditional setting.
Idaho drew first blood just shy of five minutes into the first period. Possessing the puck in the Orlando defensive zone, Steelheads forward A.J. White saw a cross-ice passing lane through theSolar Bears defense open up. On the other end of it was Henrik Samuelsson, the son of former NHLer Ulf Samuelsson. White made a perfect pass and all Samuelsson had to do was turn his stick and redirect it into the wide open side of the net behind Orlando netminder Connor Ingram for his 5th goal of the season.
The first major failure of the Solar Bears special teams as Berehowsky referenced came midway through the period. With Orlando on a power play, White forced a turnover in the home end of the ice. The puck found its way to Will Merchant who deposited a backhander up and over Ingram for his 11th of the season. The short-handed score was the 10th of the year for the Steelheads while it was the 15th time that the Solar Bears had allowed a goal while up a man.
With frustrations building, the Solar Bears desperately needed to put a dent in the Steelheads’ momentum. They turned up the heat on Idaho goalie Tomas Sholl, creating chances and havoc in front of the visitors net. That havoc came into play when Chris LeBlanc was able to send the puck back to Cody Donaghey who blew a high, hard slap shot past a distracted Sholl for his 14th tally of the season.
The intensity of the game began to grow late in the frame, coming to a first boil with 3:14 to go before the first intermission. Samuelsson took the puck in the nuetral zone and began making his way toward the other end with LeBlanc giving it his all to get back and break up the play. LeBlanc laid a two-hander on Samuelsson but the big forward stayed on line, eventually crashing into Ingram and sending the netminder into the back of his net laying flat on his back. Donaghey immediately went after Samuelsson, engaging his opponent and creating a pair of matching roughing minors to go with LeBlanc’s slashing infraction.
Early in the second frame, the Solar Bears were handed a shot at redemption in the form of their second man advantage of the game. Once again special teams became an Achilles’ heel for Orlando when Idaho lit the goal light while down a man. After Sholl denied both Brent Pedresen and Olivier Archambault, the Steelheads mounted a counterattack. What looked like an innocent two-on-two foray became lethal when Elgin Pearce saw his teammate draw the defense to him leaving plenty of room for Pearce to get to the crease and beat Ingram for his 15th of the season and second in two days against the Solar Bears.
“Our power play needs to be better collectively as a group,” Donaghey said when asked about the team’s penchant for allowing man down goals. “It’s not time to take our foot off the gas. We need to outwork their penalty killers and keep the momentum for the team whether its scoring a goal or just playing in their zone and getting opportunities. Our power play needs to be better for sure.”
The first pure fight of the game riled up the crowd at the 9:16 mark when Idaho’s Reid Petryk and Orlando’s Zach Frye dropped the gloves after a whistle for a penalty to the Steelheads’ Jeff King. Emotions took a huge leap up a couple of minutes later when the Solar Bears’ Archambault ended up on the ice in pain and had to be helped off the ice with an injury.
The visitors added more figurative injury with less than four minutes to go in the middle frame. As Orlando was in the middle of trying to kill off a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, a second infraction was caught, causing a delayed penalty signal to go up. Steelheads’defenseman Charlie Dodero ended up with the puck and went for a skate, taking the disc down and behind the Solar Bears net and circling back toward the blue line. As he rolled into the high slot, Dodero saw Steve McParland all alone just off the post to Ingram’s right. Dodero laid a perfect pass to McParland who sent it home for his 23rd of the year and a rather commanding 4-1 Idaho lead.
As the final stanza began, the Solar Bears saw another of their key cogs go down. Trevor Olson got tangled up with the Steelheads’ King, causing a penalty for the visitors but also sending Olson to the locker room with an injury. It only added to the simmering bad blood between the two squads as scrums began occurring almost every shift. Matching penalties started cropping up with regularity, slowing the flow of the game to a crawl. As time crawled along, the Solar Bears frustrations with both the Steelheads and the officials grew. One last battle between Orlando captain Mike Monfredo and Idaho’s Keegan Kanzig with 18.9 seconds left in the game set the scene for Tuesday night’s rubber game of the set, one that promised to be even more nasty than Sunday’s tilt.
Notes: Final shots were 37 to 25 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears went 0-for-5 on the power play while the Steelheads went 1-for-4… Orlando’s Ingram recorded 21 saves in suffering the loss while Idaho’s Sholl stopped 36 of the 37 shots he faced… Solar Bears forward Troy Bourke picked up an assist to extend his point streak to five games (3 goals, 9 assists) while Donaghey moved his own streak to four games (2 goals, 4 assists)… Tuesday night’s game is set for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
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