JACKSONVILLE, FLA – Facing a team sitting behind you in the standings can be tricky. On one hand, the higher placed squad should be able to win easily if it plays its game. On the flip side, however, it can be very easy to overlook a team that is already in the rearview mirror and that is when trouble can happen.
Wednesday night may have been St. Patrick’s night but for the Orlando Solar Bears, the luck of the Irish was not in their favor.
Three unanswered goals from late in the first period to midway through the third were the difference as the Jacksonville Icemen (13-13-1-3) took down the visiting Solar Bears (17-12-3-1) by a final of 5-2 in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,678 at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville. Five different Icemen scored goals while netminder Charles Williams stopped 31 of 33 shots as Jacksonville picked up its third win of the season against its in-state rival.
Tyler Bird and Aaron Luchuk each scored once for Orlando, which lost its second straight game in regulation after getting points in eight straight contests.
Sporting their specialty St. Partick’s Day jerseys, the Icemen appeared to be ready from the outset. Some early pressure on the Orlando defense led to a quick score when Derek Lodermeier used a screen to surprise Solar Bears netminder Clint Windsor with a shot that sailed past the goalie’s blocker glove. For Lodermeier, it was his fifth tally of the season.
Caught off guard by the push by the Icemen, Orlando answered one minute and a second after Lodermeier’s score. It came when captain Chris LeBlanc fired a shot on Williams who made the initial save. The rebound came loose and was put back by Bird between Williams’ legs for his sixth goal of the year to tie things at 1-1.
With two minutes left before the first intermission, Jacksonville had another push that led to a goal. This time it was Brendan Warren who converted the rebound of a drive by Trevor Hamilton for his seventh of the 2020-21 campaign, giving the home team a 2-1 lead at the first break.
Feeling good about the way the opening stanza went, the Icemen increased their lead 4:09 into the middle stanza. Again, a rebound was the culprit when Windsor fended off a shot by Mike Szmatula but Nick Saracino was there to shovel a backhander past the Orlando goalie for his 10th of the year to make it a 3-1 game.
Jacksonville continued to put the heat on the Solar Bears but Windsor, who was making his fifth consecutive start, shut the door. He made a total of 16 saves in the period, including a brilliant glove stop on Brandon Gignac, to keep the score at just a two-goal deficit. At the other end of the ice, Williams had a solid middle frame, turning away all nine Orlando shots.
Both sides fell into a more defensive style in the third period as for the longest time, shots were hard to come by. The Solar Bears finally started to open their offense up, stringing together four straight shots but Williams denied all of them.
Williams’ work was rewarded when Gignac showed great hand-eye coordination, using his stick to bat an aerial puck into the cage for his first goal as a member of the Icemen at the 9:18 mark to up the margin to 4-1.
Late in regulation, the Solar Bears got their first power play of the game and converted nine seconds after the whistle. Luchuk took a feed from Mark Auk in the faceoff circle and rifled a shot past Williams for his 11th of the year with 2:12 left on the clock.
It was all for naught as following the ensuing faceoff at center ice, Windsor (28 saves) was pulled for an extra skater. Moments later, Christopher Brown got loose and scored an empty net goal for his fourth of the season with 1:43 to go. Orlando did not record any shots the rest of the way and Jacksonville skated off with the win.
The two teams will continue their four-game week on Friday night with game two at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Notes: Final shots were 33-33… Orlando went 1-for-1 on the power play while Jacksonville was 0-for-2… With the loss, the Solar Bears are now 4-2-1-0 against the Icemen this season.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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