ESTERO, FLA – For two periods Saturday night at Germain Arena, the Orlando Solar Bears and Florida Everblades were locked in a tie game, a death struggle which meant either a even series or an 0-2 hole for the visitors from Central Florida. The final twenty minutes – or more if needed – would be a defining moment in the 2018 version of the growing post-season rivalry between two of the ECHL teams that call the Sunshine State home.
All it took was 6:24 of those 20 minutes for the Everblades to take control of the series.
Four goals in the final frame – two by Mitchell Heard – and a two goal night from Sam Warning led host Florida to a 5-1 victory in game two of the best-of-seven South division finals in front of an announced crowd of 4,381. With the win, the Everblades will take a two games to none lead north when the series continues with game three Thursday night in Orlando.
Saying that the two games in southwest Florida left the Solar Bears frustrated is an understatement. Saturday’s contest ended with them having to kill six more Everblades power plays, equaling the number of disadvantages faced in game one. Orlando finished the game with 68 total penalty minutes, giving the Solar Bears 82 PIMs in two contests to 32 for Florida.
More troubling than the number of penalty kills – the Solar Bears went 11-for-12 doing that in the two games – may be the shortage of goals the offense has scored. After netting eight goals in four games against South Carolina in the first round, a number that was enough thanks to goalie Cal Heeter and the defense, Orlando has only beaten Florida goalie Martin Ouellette twice while the Everblades have put nine pucks past the Solar Bears star netminder.
Unlike Friday’s matchup where the first period was void of scoring, each team found its way onto the board before the game was eight minutes old on Saturday. Florida started the scoring at the 4:28 mark when John McCarron sent the puck back to the point where Gus Young lined up a slap shot. Young’s drive found the stick blade of Warning in the slot, changing the trajectory enough to beat Heeter for Warning’s first post-season tally.
After failing to connect on a power play, the Solar Bears evened the score with a goal that looked exactly like Warning’s goal. It came at the 7:58 mark when a point shot by Sam Jardine was redirected by Chris LeBlanc into the net behind Ouellette for the rookie’s first professional playoff score. Jean Dupuy picked up the secondary assist on the play when he grabbed the puck off of a faceoff and sent it back to Jardine.
The rest of the opening frame and all of the second period belonged to Heeter and Ouellette. The two goalies went toe-to-toe in a battle that was very similar to the war that Heeter engaged in with the Stingrays’ Parker Milner in round one. The Orlando netminder was in vintage form in the middle stanza as the Everblades, with the help of four power play chances, pounded away with 13 shots in the first 15 minutes of the frame on the way to a 15-save period. Ouellette was not nearly as busy, facing just three Solar Bears shots in the same time frame but was solid over the final five minutes as Orlando ran its period total to seven with a late push.
One sequence seemed to exemplify just how dialed in both netminders were. During an Everblades man advantage with just under seven minutes left before the second intermission, Orlando’s Max Novak got loose for an offensive foray that Ouellette had to make a brilliant save on. Florida immediately launched a counterattack that set up Joe Cox for a golden opportunity that Heeter turned away.
A pair of matching penalties at the final buzzer in the second put the teams in a four-on-four situation to start the final frame. Just 59 seconds in, Clark Seymour sent Warning up the near side boards into the Orlando end. Driving to the faceoff circle to Heeter’s right, Warning faked a slap shot, freezing the goalie and setting up a wrist shot to the far side that lit the lamp for his second goal of the game. John McCarron picked up the secondary assist on the score.
Less than three minutes later, the Everblades sixth man advantage of the game turned into a two-goal lead. It came when Heard took a pass from Spencer Smallman and from the top of the circle to the goalie’s left, fired a hard shot that found its way through some traffic and into the net for his third of the post-season. Two minutes and 41 seconds later, Steven Lorentz sent Heard streaking into the Orlando end. Heard got Heeter to bite on a forehand fake before dragging the puck aroundthe netminder and putting a backhander home for his second of the night. Zack Kamrass, who got the puck to Lorentz originally, earned a secondary helper on the play.
The ensuing celebration, which ended up close to the Orlando bench, started the downward spiral of the game as Solar Bears defenseman Mike Monfredo did not take too kindly to it and drew a pair of ten minute misconducts and an early exit.
Heard also had a hand in the last goal of the night. He was in the penalty box when McCarron sent David Dziurzynski on a breakaway. Making a beeline for the slot in front of Heeter, Dziurzynski rifled a shot past the blocker glove og the goalie for a short-handed tally and his second goal in as many nights for a 5-1 Everblades lead.
The animosity between the two teams blossomed after that as Orlando’s Tayler Thompson and Florida’s Brett Bulmer dropped the gloves in a bout that Bulmer appeared to win. Less than two minutes later, Solar Bears sparkplug Hunter Fejes fought the Everblades Young with Orlando captain Sean Zimmerman picking up a misconduct to end his night. The Solar Bears had two late power play chances but Ouellete held the fort to put the game in the win column for his team.
Notes: For the second straight game, Florida outshot Orlando, this time by a count of 35-27… Heard’s power play tally ended the Solar Bears penalty killers success streak at 29… The Solar Bears went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, running their scoreless streak in the series to 0-for-7… Ouellette finished the night with 26 saves to pick up his fifth win of the 2018 playoffs while Heeter stopped 30 in suffering his second defeat… With the win, the Everblades now have an overall playoff record of 10-5 against the Solar Bears spanning three post-season series including the current one… Puck drop for Thursday’s game three at the Amway Center is set for 7 p.m.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.