NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Through forty minutes of play at the North Charleston Coliseum Saturday night, the Orlando Solar Bears were down by two goals and facing yet another squandered chance at punching a ticket to the 2019 ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs.
Whatever went on in their locker room between stanzas, the Solar Bears may have found their identity – one that might just give them a shot at a long post season run.
A three goal outburst in the first 10:39 of the third period, punctuated by a goal by Alex Schoenborn, turned a third consecutive frustrating night into a playoff clinching 3-2 victory for the Solar Bears (37-25-4-1, 79 points) over the South Carolina Stingrays (32-31-5-1, 70 points) in front of an announced crowd of 6,732. Scores by Tayler Thompson and Chris LeBlanc pulled the visitors even 5:22 into the final frame before Schoenborn’s ninth goal of the season gave Orlando its first and only lead of the night.
Added to the list of heroes for the Solar Bears was goalie Connor Ingram. Pulled early in Friday night’s gane in Greenville, Ingram responded with a performance worthy of his pre-reassignment to Orlando spot as one of the AHL’s best. He turned away 35 of 37 shots, many in key situations, to make the comeback possible.
The win, Orlando’s 19th away from the Amway Center, also kept it three points ahead of the rival Jacksonville Icemen for second place in the ECHL’s South Division and home ice in a potential first round matchup between two of the state of Florida’s three double-A hockey franchises.
Given the fact that the home standing Stingrays needed a victory to remain in the race for a playoff spot, the Solar Bears knew they would have their hands full with a desperate squad on the other side of the ice. Unlike the past two games, Orlando responded to an early South Carolina push with one of its own as the first period played out in a back and forth manner.
The rivals traded power play opportunities through the middle part of the opening stanza with neither Ingram nor the Stingrays Parker Milner giving an inch.
The first big beak of the night came with less than two minutes remaining before the first intermission. Solar Bears defenseman Alex Kuqali tried to get control of a bouncing puck inside the Orlando defensive blueline but the vulcanized rubber disc took a disasterous hop. Stingrays’ forward Patrick Gaul, who was on Kuqali’s heels, took the puck away and from the faceoff circle to the left of the net and fired a shot that surprised Ingram, getting past the netminder on the shot side for Gaul’s 10th tally of the season.
Leading by one heading into the second frame, the Stingrays went to work, recording the first four shots of the period and six of the first eight combined chances. The eighth chance, South Carolina’s sixth in the first 5:41, became the second score of the night when Mason Mitchell tracked down the rebound of a Jonathan Charbonneau shot that rang the post and fired it home for his 5th of the year and a 2-0 lead.
Not too long after, the simmering feud between the two teams that had been building for a while spiked. The event that touched it off involved Stingrays star Andrew Cherniwchan – who had made himself a prime target of Orlando fans and players in an incident back in January – when he got loose on a partial breakaway before turning his back to the net and ran over Ingram. Cherniwchan was not penalized on the play.
Orlando faced two penalty killing opportunities late in the period, broken up by only a stretch of pressure that saw Ingram diving all over the crease. South Carolina outshot Orlando 8-1 over the final 6:23 of the period but thanks to Ingram, the lead stayed at 2-0 heading for the third.
No one knows what was said in the Solar Bears room during the intermission but it must have been something because Orlando was a completely different team in the third. Just 1:47 in,the Bears went on a counterattack into the South Carolina end. Schoenborn, who was leading the foray, skated into the mid-slot and dropped the puck for Thompson who was sliding in from Schoenborn’s right. Thompson took no more that two quick strides before ripping a shot past Milner for his 7th of the season to cut the deficit in half.
The Stingrays, sensing a shift in the momentum, countered with a flurry of three shots over the next three minutes but Ingram was on point. South Carolina appeared to think that it had stemmed the tide but what happened next proved otherwise.
A faceoff in the Orlando end looked innocent enough, especially when the puck floated into open ice between the top of the circle and the blueline. Solar Bears forward Troy Bourke decided this was his opportunity to make a play and he did, quickly skating to the puck and taking off for center ice. Neither Stingrays defender could get to him and Bourke zoomed in on Milner, firing a shot that hit the post to the goalie’s left flush. It hit so hard that the carom came out into the low slot where it hit LeBlanc, who was following the play, in the gut and sailed into the net on the fly for LeBlanc’s 9th and a tie game.
Blessed with the luck that had eluded them back in the first on Gaul’s goal, the Solar Bears went on the offensive. Even a penalty on Kuqali did not stem the tide as Orlando registered two shots on the penalty kill as part of a 6-2 run of shots over a four minute span. One of the shots by the Stingrays came off the stick of Charbonneau but Ingram flashed his glove hand, robbing Charbonneau of what could have been a go-ahead score.
With 9:21 remaining in regulation, the Solar Bears put the exclamation point on their comeback. It started with an offensive zone faceoff win by Thompson back to Michael Brodzinski. As Brodzinski floated one stride toward the center of the ice, Schoenborn along with a teammate and a couple of Stingrays defenders skated into the slot. Brodzinski launched a shot that Schoenborn got his stick on, changing the trajectory enough to get it past Milner’s right shoulder for the his 9th of the year.
The Stingrays knew that time was slipping away and began to press the issue, testing Ingramon a number of occasions down the stretch. The Solar Bears defense needed to step up and they did, allowing Ingram to shine with several important saves.
As the clock ticked inside of a minute to go, the frustrations of the Stingrays overflowed and Orlando was ready to respond. With 27 seconds left, a huge mele broke out at center ice. Orlando’s Mike Monfredo ended up battling Cherniwchan and when the pair fell to the ice, Monfredo caught his opponent with a punch that came close to knocking Cherniwchan’s head to the ice. While that was going on, South Carolina’s Miles Liberati was trying to get at Solar Bears defenseman Zach Frye while both were being separated by the linesmen. By the time that order was restored, Monfredo and Frye had been tagged for a combined 34 minutes in penalties while Cherniwchan and Liberati were whistled for 24.
The Stingrays fought to the end as Jordan Samuels-Thomas had a final shot with two seconds to go but Ingram calmly made the save before the final buzzer sounded, setting off a celebration that was four days in the making.
Orlando still has work to do with Jacksonville looking to overtake the Solar Bears for second. That work begins Sunday afternoon with a return matchup with Greenville back at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena at 3 p.m. The Solar Bears will see the Icemen twice over the final week of the season – once on Tuesday and the second on April 7th – needing four points (any combination of Orlando wins or Jacksonville losses totaling four) to wrap up second place in the division.
Notes: Final shots were 37-33 in favor of South Carolina… The Solar Bears went 0-for-4 on the power play while the Stingrays finished 0-for-5… Orlando’s comeback win was the sixth time it has accomplished the fete this season, the second most in the ECHL in 2018-19 (Maine leads with seven)… LeBlanc extended his goal streak to two games (2 goals)… South Carolina’s Milner finished the night with 30 saves in suffering the loss.
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.