JACKSONVILLE, FLA – As the number of days remaining in the 2021-22 ECHL regular season begin to dwindle, every game and every point become more crucial. Because the final weeks are all played within the division, the contests take on extra importance since each one is a potential four-point swing with points percentages either going up or dropping down.
Wednesday night at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena, the Orlando Solar Bears and the Jacksonville Icemen played one of those games where postseason seeding either widens out or gets tighter. In the end, it was the visitors from Central Florida who pulled closer to their rivals from the River City.
Three unanswered goals by Orlando over the course of the last two periods allowed the Solar Bears (29-22-4-0) to overcome a defecit to beat the host Icemen (30-18-2-2) by a final of 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 4,244. The victory, Orlando’s third straight over Jacksonville in the season series between the two Sunshine State rivals, drew the Solar Bears a little bit closer to the Icemen in the battle for the third seed in the South division (.615 points percentage for Jacksonville to .564 for Orlando with the Icemen having three games in hand).
Defenseman Nolan Valleau and forwards Maxim Cajkovic and Shawn Element scored the three goals that allowed Orlando to pull away after Jake Transit scored the Solar Bears’ first goal early in the first period. The offense was backed up goalie Brad Barone who made 33 saves in his 20th consecutive start to grab his league-leading 22nd victory and oh,by the way, picked up his third assist of the season.
The fact that Wednesday night’s tilt was the 11th meeting this season and fifth in a month’s time helped to turn up the intensity quite a bit. Before the animosity ramped up, the Solar Bears opened the scoring 4:54 into the opening frame. Dylan Fitze made the key play, setting up Transit who beat Icemen goalie Charles Williams for his fifth goal of the season.
The nastiness began in the final five minutes when the Icemen’s Craig Martin drove Solar Bears forward Luke Boka, earning a five-minute major for boarding. Two minutes later, a scrum led to Element and Tristin Langan heading to the penalty box along with Jacksonville’s Nick Ford, setting up some four-on-four play. During that four-on-four, the Icemen evened the score when Luke Lynch finished off a cycling play out high by driving to the net and tucking a backhander past Barone for his ninth of the season.
The ugliness of the period climaxed with seven seconds to go. During a stoppage in play, Orlando’s Tyler Bird caused a ruckus near the Jacksonville bench. Bird’s actions drew the ire of Austin McEneny who left the bench to engage Bird. When the dust settled, Bird received a major penalty and game misconduct for slashing while McEneny was hit with a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct and a game misconduct for leaving the bench.
There were plenty of carryover penalties as the second period began. Thirty-one seconds in, Jacksonville’s Martin was released after his major expired and took a feed from Kyle McKenzie in the neutral zone. In alone, Martin slipped a backhander between Barone’s legs for his 16th of the season and a 2-1 Icemen lead.
The lead for the home team lasted all of 62 seconds. At the 53 second mark, Jacksonville’s Sean Giles was called for holding the stick, which led to a power play goal by Valleau on the man advantage set up by Element and Langan. For Valleau, it was his first goal since April 10, 2021.
Just under five minutes later, the Solar Bears regained the lead. Cajkovic and Element busted into the Jacksonville defensive zone on an odd-man rush. With a second Icemen skater closing on Element and the other defenseman going into a slide, Cajkovic decided to shoot from the faceoff circle. He roofed the wrist shot at the glove side intersection of the post and crossbar, beating Williams for his third of the season for a 3-2 Orlando lead.
The score stayed that way through the remainder of the second period and most of the third as Barone and Williams settled into a battle of the netminders. With a little under three minutes remaining, the Icemen pulled Williams (25 saves) for an extra attacker. Despite their efforts, the Icemen could not find a tying score.
Element finished off the scoring with 1:07 to go when he took a pass from Luke McInnis, who had collected the rebound of a save by Barone, and sailed the puck into the empty net for his third since being assigned to Orlando.
The teams will meet yet again Thursday night at 7 p.m., this time at the friendly confines of the Amway Center.
Notes: Final shots were 36-29 in favor of Jacksonville… The Solar Bears went 1-for-4 on the power play while the Icemen went 0-for-3… With the win, Orlando finished its five-game road trip with a 4-1-0-0 record… The game was the 152nd for Orlando’s Langan in a Solar Bears jersey, tying him with Mike Monfredo and Scott Tanski for fifth most in team history. His assist on Valleau’s tally was his 83rd all-time, tying him with Michael Brodzinski for most in franchise history… The two teams combined for 62 penalty minutes with 37 minutes given to Orlando and 25 minutes to Jacksonville.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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