NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Friday night, the Orlando Solar Bears entered the third period of their game against the South Carolina Stingrays down by just one goal after giving up three in the opening frame. They were in the game and felt that they had a chance to come back and win against a team that they had beaten several times already. All they needed to do was turn on the offense in the final frame.
Unfortunately, as its has been in the last several contests, the pilot light for the offense was not lit.
Led by multi-point nights by Joe Devin, Steven Whitney, Nick Roberto and Travis Walsh, the host Stingrays (28-11-4-1, 61 points) scored three times in the third period to put away the Solar Bears (19-20-5-1, 44 points) by a final of 6-2 in front of an announced crowd of 4,353 at the North Charleston Coliseum. The win was the third straight for South Carolina against its South division opponent.
The loss, Orlando’s third in its last four games, spoiled a big night for rookie forward Tayler Thompson. Thompson, playing in his second game after coming off the injured reserve list, notched a Gordie Howe hat trick – a goal, assist and a fight – to lead the way for the Solar Bears.
Playing with a short roster with AHL callups (Nolan Valleau to Chicago and Alex Gudbranson to Toronto) poking holes in their defensive corps along with a flu bug that knocked Sam Jardine and Chris Crane out of the lineup, the Solar Bears found a way to get a good start to the contest. At the 3:31 mark of the opening frame, Orlando forced an error that led to a turnover. The puck hit the skate of Martins Dzierkals and went to Thompson who went to the net and beat Stingrays goalie Parker Milner for his third goal of the season.
Orlando netminder Mackenzie Skapski, playing in his third straight game with Cal Heeter on recall to the Toronto Marlies, was sharp in the front half of the period, handling nine South Carolina shots including four during a furious push during a Stingrays power play.
The Stingrays finally solved Skapski at the 11:09 mark when Whitney fed the puck to Federico who beat the Orlando netminder through a traffic jam in front of the net for his third of the season.
Federico’s tally, his second against the Solar Bears, ignited the South Carolina offense. One minute and 31 seconds later on apower play, Devin nailed a one-time feed from Walsh high to Skapski’s glove side for the Stingrays captain’s 13th of the year and a lead the home team would not relinquish. Dylan Margonari upped the lead to 3-1 late in the frame when Patrick Gaul won an offensive zone faceoff and Margonari drove a shot past the goalie.
Orlando got itself back in the contest at the 7:51 mark of the second frame. It came when Thompson sent Hunter Fejes and Joe Perry away on an odd-man rush. At the right moment, Fejes got the puck to Perry who beat Milner for his seventh score of the year.
Tempers boiled over six minutes later when South Carolina’s Marcus Perrier whacked Fejes with a hit that the Solar Bears bench thought was high. Thompson, who was playing on a line with Fejes and Perry, immediately challenged Perrier and the two went at it, giving the rookie forward his hat trick of events named after the Hall of Fame winger.
Trailing by just one heading into the third, Orlando wanted badly to come out hard but the Stingrays beat them to it. The pressure eventually led to a turnover and an easy tap into an empty net by Whitney at the 6:50 mark. The goal was Whitney’s 14th of the season and reestablished the home team’s two-goal lead.
The Solar Bears had a hard time generating any offense in the final stanza, earning just three recorded shots on net in the first 15:19 of the period. Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky pulled Skapski (33 saves) with a little over three minutes remaining but South Carolina answered with an empty net tally by Roberto for his second of the year – both of them against the Solar Bears. A late penalty gave the Stingrays one last man advantage and they added a score by Hampus Gustafsson, his fifth of the year and third against Orlando, to create the final score.
In its last five games, Orlando has been outscored 10-2 in the last twenty minutes of regulation and been outshot 61-33 in that time frame.
Notes: South Carolina outshot Orlando 39-25 in the game… The Solar Bears went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Stingrays were 2-for-4… Milner, who shut out Orlando last Saturday, made 23 saves to grab the victory… The Solar Bears will be in Duluth, Georgia to take on the Atlanta Galdiators Saturday night at the Infinite Energy Arena at 7:05 p.m. It will be the last road contest for Orlando as it will play its next eight games at the Amway Center.
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