ORLANDO, FLA – Thursday morning at the Amway Center, it looked like the Orlando Solar Bears had everything going their way: a large and loud of students, some of the jam and spark that had been lacking in the past five games and a three goal lead well into the second period of the rematch with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. Even early in the third period, it looked like the Solar Bears were in control and about to earn their first win at home this season.
Orlando rookie Todd Skirving celebrates his first professional goal during Thursday’s first period (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
And then in the blink of an eye, it all fell apart.
Two goals in a span of 33 seconds in the final frame led to overtime where Adam Chapie’s score 1:09 into the extra frame as the Swamp Rabbits (7-3-1-0, 15 points) stunned Orlando (2-5-2-0, 6 points) 4-3 in front of an announced crowd of 6,395 for the Solar Bears’ second annual school day game. The loss, which extended Orlando’s winless streak to six games, spoiled a huge day for rookie Todd Skirving who netted his first two professional goals.
Chapie’s goal, his eighth of the young season, was made possible by power play tallies by Sergey Zborovskiy and former Solar Bear Joe Basaraba during a double minor penalty called on Orlando defenseman Aleksandr Mikulovich early in the final stanza. The final result overshadowed the performances by Skirving and goalie Cal Heeter, who continued his steady improvement with 29 saves – many of which excited the crowd.
“I’m disappointed. I thought we came out and we had a great first period and then we kind of went a little bit away from our game plan,” Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky said. “Then in the third period, we allowed them back in with penalties.”
Coming off what was a less than inspiring performance in a 7-2 loss on Tuesday, Coach Berehowsky held what was described as an intence practice on Wednesday. The message that Berehowsky and assistant coach John Snowden sent to the players was received and executedto near perfection in the opening frame. The Solar Bears hit the ice hard and fast, forcing Greenville goalie Ty Rimmer into several key saves in the early going.
A fight between Orlando’s Mackenzie Braid, who was seeing his first action of the 2017-18 season, and the Swamp Rabbits’ Jack Nevins drew the attention of the crowd and elevating the decibel level in the building. The noise would get even louder at the 8:19 mark when during a man advantage, Skirving was in front of the net when he grabbed a rebound of a shot and jammed it between Rimmer’s legs. The puck rolled in behind the netminder where the Thunder Bay, Ontario native gave it a final push across the goal line.
Orlando’s Kyle Rankin (19, left) and Logan Nelson (18, right) sandwich Greenville’s Sean Flanagan during Thursday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“Winnie [Josh Winquist], Novie [Max Novak] and Val [Nolan Valleau] did a good job working it up top on the power play. Val did a good job getting the puck through and I think Nelly [newcomer Logan Nelson] might have gotten a little stick on it,” Skirving, who played his college hockey at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, said. “I came to the back side and was fortunate enough to bang it home and take advantage of that.”
The Solar Bears power play, which has been improving over time, struck again late in the stanza. Novak was quick to grab the rebound of a drive by Valleau that hit the post, feeding the puck to Winquist who sent it back to Valleau. This time, the Novi, Michigan born defender, using Chris Crane as a screen, blistered a shot past the goalie’s stick side for his third tally of the season and a 2-0 lead.
The confidence built during that first period carried over into the second. Just 1:41 in, Mike Vaskivuo sent the puck to Adam Phillips at the point. Phillips drove a shot toward the net that hit a Greenville defender and fell to Skirving who was in front. Skirving quickly got control and back-handed the puck home for his second of the game and a three goal lead that looked solid as a rock.
The reason the margin looked safe was the way the Orlando defense in concert with Heeter was playing. The Solar Bears had held the Swamp Rabbits to nine shots in the opening frame and continued the mastery by holding the visitors to just four more in the first ten minutes of the second.
Greenville finally got on the board with just under seven minutes left in the period. Overlapping penalties to Crane and Jean Dupuy gave the Swamp Rabbits a two-man advantage for well over a minute. The Solar Bears killed the two man power play but seconds after Crane left the box, Dawson Leedahl converted the rebound of his own shotfor his third goal of the year.
Even though the lead had been trimmed to 3-1, the Solar Bears felt confident that the game was in their control.
“I thought we had a great start to the game. Obviously we got a couple of power play goals there and set the tone pretty early there.I thought the boys were rolling,” Vaskivuo said. “The first forty minutes were great.”
The Solar Bears killed a penalty to defenseman Sam Jardine early in the third, giving the home team even more confidence. Then at the 3:48 mark, Mikulovich was nabbed for drawing blood from a Greenville player. Late in the first half of the advantage, Zborovskiy slid his way between three Orlando defenders and broke in alone. He got Heeter moving and slid the puck between the netminder’s legs for his fourth goal of the season. A half minute later, some pinpoint passing from Caleb Herbert and Leedahl led to a feed to the back side  of the play where Basaraba jammed the puck into the back of the net for his third goal and a tie score.
The teams traded power play chances down the stretch but neither connected,sending the contest into overtime. During the extra period, Zborovskiy fed the puck to Chapie back near the blue line. As a Solar Bear sped toward him, he faked a shot and when his opponent went down, he drew around and skated into the slot where he whistled a shot past Heeter for the game winner.
Vaskivuo, who has during his ten year career played in multiple leagues in both North America and Europe, said that he and his Solar Bear teammates are doing their best to stay positive by playing hard and knowing that it is only a matter of time before their luck changes.
“The first thing is that you need to work hard. We’re working hard. We had a hard practice yesterday [Wednesday]. Good teams get bounces – if you’re on a ten game winning streak, you’re getting lucky too. At times during that streak you’re getting lucky bounces; you’re creating [chances] but then you’re getting lucky along the way,” Vaskivuo said. “Right now we’re kind of on the short end ofthe stick right now. We’re not really letting it get to us. Drake’s done a great job of telling us to keep our heads down and work, work, work. For a lot of the game, the first forty minutes, we were working. We really took the game to them. There’s things we’ve got to clean up – take less penalties for one – and hopefully weget some bounces coming our way.”
Notes: Greenville went 3-for-9 on the power play in the game while Orlando finished 2-for-9… The Solar Bears outshot the Swamp Rabbits 44-33 in the contest… Rimmer made 41saves in collecting his fourth win of the season… The Solar Bears will conclude their homestand Sunday afternoon when the Florida Everblades return to the Amway Center for a 1:30 p.m. puck drop.
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