GREENVILLE, SC – Friday night at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, the Orlando Solar Bears began arguably their most important stretch of play this season. With 13 of the next 14 games between now and March 2nd coming against South division opponents, the Solar Bears could not stand to throw away any points, especially against teams below them in the standings – one of them being the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
It may not have been pretty but thanks to Tayler Thompson and Martin Ouellette, Orlando was able to grab two points away from the pesky Swamp Rabbits.
Thompson scored his second straight game-winning goal in crunch time and Ouellette stopped 39 shots to lift the Solar Bears (22-17-3-0) to a 4-2 win over host Greenville (14-28-3-2) in front of an announced crowd of 3,133. Colby McAuley picked up three assists while Mathieu Foget, Alex Schoenborn and Mike Monfredo each chipped in with a goal to keep the Solar Bears in fourth place by five points over Norfolk while moving within one point of third place Jacksonville.
In the dying seconds of a major power play, the Solar Bears used precision passing and swift skating to move the puck down the ice in the space of ten seconds. Chris LeBlanc sprang McAuley and Thompson on a two-on-one rush into the Greenville end where McAuley drew the defender and slipped a pass to Thompson who beat Greenville goalie Chris Nell with 1:20 to go in regulation. The tally was Thompson’s third of the season, two of them being the deciding scores in the last two contests.
Playing in its eighth game of a nine-game road trip, Orlando had a bolstered lineup with defenseman Myles McGurty back after missing the last two games plus the addition of blueliner Alex Kuqali (trade from Fort Wayne) and forward Manny Giadelakis (signed after being released by Norfolk on Monday). The extra troops brought with them added energy and it showed quickly.
Pushing the play early, the Solar Bears forced Greenville to take a pair of penalties in the first 3:39 of the first period. Although Orlando’s power play failed to take advantage of 43 seconds of five-on-three time, the visitors did cash in late in the second infraction. After working the puck around, McAuley saw a shooting lane from the circle to the left of Nell. McAuley’s drive was sent wide by Nell but it went right to Foget on the backside of the net and he drove it home for his 13th goal of the season (12th as a Solar Bear).
Three minutes later, Kuqali made his presence known when he took a feed from Jonne Tammela (two assists) and drilled a low, hard shot at the net. Schoenborn got himself in perfect position to redirect Kuqali’s drive over Nell for his fourth of the season. With Ouellette playing a perfect period by stopping all eleven shots he faced, Orlandotook a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The visitors had not one but two chances to advance their lead with power plays in the first half of the second frame but failed to do so. The successful penalty killing gave the Swamp Rabbits some momentum, which they used to force two Solar Bears penalties in the back half of the stanza. Neither opportunity panned out but with a delayed penalty coming to Orlando in the final minute, Greenville finally struck.
With Nell pulled on the delayed call, the Swamp Rabbits marched into the Orlando defensive zone. Ouellette stopped a shot by Chad Duchesne and the rebound by Stephen Pierog but he could not get the next shot that came from Kamerin Nault, who jammed it past the Solar Bears goalie for his first goal as a Swamp Rabbit to cut the Orlando lead to 2-1 after two.
Tempers boiled over 6:12 into the final frame when Thompson and Greenville’s Jake Bolton tangled, each drawing a fighting major and Thompson having to head to the locker room to get checked out for a potential injury.
Thompson did return to the bench but he and his teammates saw the very persistent Swamp Rabbits tie the score. Again it was Nault who lit the goal light when he redirected a shot by Johno May between Ouellette’s legs for his second of the night with 8:14 left to go in regulation.
The game took a major turn two minutes later when what seemed like a harmless play put the home team in a bind. Schoenborn got loose for a partial break in the Greenville end. Swamp Rabbits defenseman Dan Milan got to Schoenborn but the pair could not keep their momentum from taking them into the crease and hitting Nell. Milan did not take Schoenborn’s failure to stop well, getting up and cross-checking his opponent to the ice with a hard shot to Schoenborn’s neck and shoulder area from behind. While Schoenborn was tagged for a minor penalty for charging the goalie, Milan was given a major penalty and a game misconduct.
After playing four-on-four hockey for the length of Schoenborn’s infraction, the Solar Bears had three full minutes of power play time. It took them all but one second of that time before Thompson made Greenville pay.
Monfredo sealed the victory when he sailed a shot from almost against the boards behind his net into the empty Swamp Rabbits cage with 15 seconds to go. For the Solar Bears captain, it was his fifth goal of the season.
Greenville’s Nell made 24 saves on 27 shots in suffering the loss while Ouellette won his second straight start since being reassigned to Orlando from AHL Syracuse.
Notes: Final shots in the game were 41-28 in favor of Greenville… The Solar Bears went 2-for-6 on the power play in the contest while the Swamp Rabbits failed on two opportunities… Thompson’s goal was his 100th point as a professional (32 goals, 68 assists) between the ECHL, SPHL and the Ligue Magnus in France… McAuley (6-game point / 3 goals, 6 assists) and Tammela (4-game point / 3 goals, 5 assists) each extended personal streaks… Ouellette’s 39 saves matched the season high for an Orlando goalie that was set by Corbin Boes on December 22nd in an overtime loss to Florida… The Solar Bears finish their road trip Saturday night back in Duluth, GA against the Atlanta Gladiators. Game time at the Infinite Energy Arena is set for 7:35 p.m.
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