ORLANDO, FLA – Friday night at the Amway Center, the Orlando Solar Bears got plenty of offense, especially from their defensemen who tallied a combined six points. On most nights, it would have been enough to come away with a win. Unfortunately Friday was not one of them.
Orlando defenseman Brenden Miller (center) celebrates his goal Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Brandon Alderson scored 1:14 into overtime as the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (16-12-2-0, 34 points) edged the Solar Bears (17-10-4-0, 38 points) 5-4 in front of an announced crowd of 6,696. The loss, combined with a win by the Florida Everblades over Atlanta, dropped Orlando five points behind the division-leading Everblades.
It was an especially frustrating defeat considering that the Solar Bears held 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3 leads at different points during the contest only to see the Swamp Rabbits mount comebacks each time.
“I think we played tentatively at the start and every time we seemed to build some momentum, we gave it right back to them,” Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky said. “That’s not the way we play. We have to simplify our game and I think [the] guys have to understand that’s the way we have success.”
That tentative start – the third straight such beginning to a game – saw Greenville test rookie goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo early and often. Kaskisuo made a big stop on Tommy Thompson during an Orlando power play, took away a break-in by Colin Murray and topped the first half of the opening period with a pair of back-to-back saves that would have qualified for highway robbery status.
Kaskisuo’s efforts were rewarded at the 13:26 mark of the frame when Patrick Watling set up Brenden Miller who rocketed a shot from the top of the circle to the right of Greenville netminder Mackenzie Skapski into the top corner past his stick side. It was just the second goal of the season for Miller who had sat out the previous two games.
“It was a good play by Brads (Chris Bradley) to step up and get the puck to Watty (Watling),” Miller said. “I was coming in late and he saw me. He just threw the puck to an area and I was lucky enough to get the wrist shot through on the short side.”
Just over a minute later, the Solar Bears found themselves killing off a five-on-three Swamp Rabbits power play when Chase Witala and Taylor Doherty took overlapping penalties. Orlando killed the two-man disadvantage but with fifteen seconds remaining on the Doherty infraction, Angelo Miceli split the defense and set up Trevor Gerling who got in alone and beat Kaskisuo through the legs for his fifth score of the year.
In the waning seconds of the frame, Orlando regained the lead when Doherty went down behind the Greenville net and won the puck. He then turned and made a perfect pass to Watling in the slot. Watling unleashed a hard wrister that went top corner on Skapski’s catching glove side with 11.9 seconds to go before the intermission. For Watling, it was his eighth tally of the season.
The Solar Bears had the momentum and used it at the start of the second period to increase their lead. Just 51 ticks into the stanza, a shot by Doherty from the point was skillfully redirected in midair by Connor Gaarder. The puck dipped and took a skip past the Swamp Rabbits netminder for Gaarder’s second of the season and first in front of the very appreciative home crowd.
Things began to unravel for Orlando two minutes after Gaarder’s score. At the 2:57 mark, Greenville’s Paul Zanette set up teammate Justin DaSilva for a blast from the faceoff circle to Kaskisuo’s left that screamed between the goalie’s stick arm and his body for DaSilva’s fourth of the season. Three minutes and thirty-eight seconds later, the Swamp Rabbits had an odd-man rush that ended with Matt Johnson dropping a pass for DaSilva who rang a shot off the far post and in for his second of the game and a tie score at three.
The Solar Bears interrupted Greenville’s run by regaining the lead with five and a half minutes left before the second intermission. Eric Faille sent Tony Cameranesi down the wing on a break and the rookie did the rest, dragging the puck past a defender and firing high on the short side for his thirteenth goal of the season. A little over a minute later, the Swamp Rabbits responded when Miceli found a wide open Joe Houk in the slot for a shot that beat Kaskisuo low to the glove side for his fourth of the year and a 4-4 tie at the break.
“I don’t think we did as well in the defensive zone of picking up our men and helping each other out and communicating and navigating our way through the d-zone. That definitely hurt us,” Bradley, who had two assists in the game, said. “We had a couple of breakdowns and they were able to put some pucks in the net which shouldn’t have happened at our end.”
The third period saw Orlando get two power play opportunities but failed to capitalize, bringing the Solar Bears man advantage to a string of 33 straight unsuccessful chances. Kaskisuo, who made 30 saves in the contest, took away a golden opportunity for Greenville’s Miceli late in the frame to keep the score tied on the way to a perfect final period.
Orlando had one last chance to win in regulation when Miller sent Denver Manderson away on a break with less than ten seconds left. Manderson’s shot rang the post and stayed out, send the teams to an extra period.
In the overtime, DaSilva headmanned the puck to Alderson who muscled his way around Cameranesi on the backhand before going forehand to beat Kaskisuo for his tenth goal of the season and the game winner.
With the two teams meeting again on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., Miller said that he and his teammates had an opportunity to put Friday’s loss behind them right away and focus on getting back into the win column.
“We’ll just put that one (Friday’s game) behind us and get back to work. We know we’re a good team if we play sixty minutes of our hockey,” he said. “That’s all we’ve got to do – just put that one behind us and not think about it and come out hard tomorrow.”
Notes: Former Olympian and local physician Dot Richardson was the celebrity starter for Friday’s game. Richardson is the head womens softball coach at Liberty University…Skapski made 31 saves to pick up his seventh win of the season… Recently acquired forward Alex Gacek played his first game for the Solar Bears. Gacek was sent to the Solar Bears by South Carolina to complete the trade that sent defenseman Max Nicastro to the Stingrays… The Solar Bears announced late Friday afternoon that forward Brock Montgomery had been traded to the Indy Fuel in exchange for future considerations. Montgomery had two goals and six points in twelve game with Orlando.
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