ORLANDO, FLA – On a day set aside to celebrate the contributions and sacrifices of first responders in the Central Florida community, the Orlando Solar Bears had an opportunity to put on a show against the second best team in the ECHL’s Mountain Division in front of a large crowd.
As it turned out, all they needed was forty minutes and a smoking hot offense to get the job done.
Behind a four-point night from Troy Bourke and multi-point efforts from four others, the host Solar Bears (34-21-4-1, 73 ponts) easily defeated the Idaho Steelheads (35-22-3-2, 75 points) 6-2 in front of an announced crowd of 8,687 at the Amway Center. Otto Somppi, Akim Aliu, Trevor Olson, Mathieu Foget and Cody McAuley all joined Bourke in the goal scoring column as Orlando pulled within single digits of locking up a trip to the 2019 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs.
Orlando’s Otto Somppi (17, teal) tries to move the puck away from Idaho’s Brady Norrish (10) and Ondrej Vala during Saturday’s first period (Photo courtesu of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“I’m happy. I thought we played a really good game,” Orlando Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said following his team’s 17th win at home. “I thought the guys, they played connected and I’m happy that we got the two points.”
Once again, there were roster changes aplenty for the Solar Bears as Brent Pedersen returned from AHL Manitoba, Oleg Sosunov was back from AHL Syracuse and Olivier Archambault returned from a second stint on the injured list.
What did not change was Berehowsky starting Connor Ingram between the pipes for the fifth consecutive game. After being replaced in net part way through Wednesday’s loss to Florida, Ingram was looking for a better outcome and he came through in a solid way, stopping all eight Steelheads shots in the opening period to set a tone that would follow through the contest.
While Ingram was putting up a clean sheet for the first period, his teammates were busting out to a commanding lead. The Solar Bears did it by playing their game – physical play along the boards and then letting the offensive skills of its skaters take over.
The two styles, sprinkled into a penalty killing opportunity, converged to create the first goal of the game. Second year forward Chris LeBlanc brought the hammer when while digging in on a forecheck, he forced an Idaho turnover with a big hit behind the Steelheads net. LeBlanc took the puck and whipped it to Olson who was driving down the right side of the slot. Olson wasted no time in firing it past Idaho goalie Tomas Sholl for his 16th of the season and second man down tally at the 9:11 mark – seemingly a nod to the Solar Bears’ First Responders Appreciation night theme.
Orlando doubled its lead late in the frame, using all skill to produce a tally that was as artistic as it was lethal. The play started when Hults got the puck from Aliu along the half boards. He looked up and saw Bourke cruising in the slot with lots of room to work. Hults’ feed was a little behind Bourke but the Tampa Bay Lightning prospect spun his body to take the pass on his backhand while skating backwards toward the net. He took a couple more strides and while still facing in the wrong direction, Bourke roofed a backhander into the top corner of the net for his 10th goal of the season.
Orlando goalie Connor Ingram (51, teal) fends off a shot while teammate Mitch Hults (25) and Idaho’s Reid Petryk look for a rebound (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
With 1:07 still remaining before the first intermission, the home team continued to push hard and their insistence on getting one more goal paid off. As the clock ticked inside of ten seconds to go, Michael Brodzinski got a clean passing lane and hit Foget who was in front. Sholl stopped Foget’s first shot but the hard working rookie stayed with it and popped the rebound home for his 18th of the season – 17th with Orlando – with 2.3 seconds to spare.
Orlando finished the opening stanza with a 17-8 shot advantage and a 3-0 lead, a powerful example of just what the Solar Bears could do when everyone was on the same page.
“I think it comes down to communication. I know my line today, we were communicating on what spots to go [to], where to go and pointing and everything,” Hults said. “I saw that throughout the whole bench today. Even on the other lines, people were pointing [to] who to pick up. Communication, that’s the big key I think and if we keep communicating like this and playing together and keep within our structure, it’s going to be hard to stop us.”
Hults’ statement about being hard to stop was just as true in the second period as it was in the first. An Idaho penalty as the buzzer was going off at the end of the first gave the Solar Bears two minutes of power play time on a fresh sheet of ice to begin the middle frame and the home team only needed 39 seconds to inflict more pain on the Steelheads. This time it was McAuley who was in the right place at the right time to clean up the rebound of a shot by Pedersen for his 12th of the season and first man advantage score.
Even with his team up by four, Ingram was focusing just as hard as if it was a one goal affair. Not too long after McAuley’s goal, he went post-to-post to deny Idaho’s Reid Petryk of what could have been a momentum providing goal for the visitors.
The Solar Bears turned up the offense a couple of notches, putting its quick strike capabilities on display with a pair of markers within twenty seconds to turn the game into a laugher. At the 6:32 mark, Hults sent the puck down into the Idaho end with Bourke and Somppi in hot pursuit. Sholl, thinking that Bourke would get there first, tried to play the puck with a pokecheck from his stick. The only problem was the puck went right to Bourke who sent a pass across the slot to Somppi who buried it in the wide open net for his 8th as a member of the Solar Bears and Bourke’s third point of the night.
Not long after, Orlando had an offensive zone faceoff with Somppi taking the draw and Bourke setting up just above the inside hashmarks. The pair communicated to Aliu to position himself at the top of the circle – the “shooter’s slot” as it were. As soon as the puck hit the ice, Somppi won the draw over to Bourke who one-touched it to Aliu. The veteran blueliner wound up and lasered a slapshot past the beleagured Steelheads netminder for Aliu’s 4th of the year.
“Somppi set that up. It’s a credit to him for being able to win a draw like that but then Bourkie kinda pushed it over to me as well,” Aliu explained.”It was kind of a set play. I feel like those never really work in hockey [so] I was kind of surprised to get the puck in such a prime area and I was able to put it in. It’s pretty tough to win a faceoff that clean so good on him [Somppi].”
Orlando’s Brent Pedersen (left) and Idaho’s Reid Petryk line up for a faceoff during Saturday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The Steelheads were finally able to end Ingram’s bid for a shutout but it took a perfect play late in the period to do so. Playing with a man advantage, Steve McParland was cruising across the slot when Brady Norrish sent a shot toward the net. McParland got his blade on the puck and ramped it up and over Ingram’s shoulder for a power play tally and McParland’s 22nd of the season.
Idaho did get a second score a little past the midpoint of the third period when Kyle Schempp set up Elgin Pearce for a one-timer that beat Ingram to the nearside post for his 14th goal of the year but it was not nearly enough. With two more games to play, including one on Sunday, both sides got into a message sending mood in the closing minutes. Orlando’s Kevin Lohan and Idaho’s Mitch Moroz tangled and received ten minute misconducts with 1:50 left in regulation before McAuley and the Steelheads’ Keegan Kanzig dropped the gloves with 43.3 left on the clock.
Ingram finished the night with 28 saves while upping his record to 3-1-0 since being reassigned to Orlando from Syracuse. Asked about if he sees any difference between the game as it is played in the AHL as compared to the ECHL, Ingram explained that although there may be different levels, the task of a netminder is the same no matter where you go.
“There’s obvious differences like the speed [of the game] and things like that but at the end of the day as a goalie you just have to stop the puck,” Ingram said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in the NHL, the Olympics or playing senior hockey in Saskatchewan [where Ingram is from], it never changes.”
Orlando’s Olivier Archambault (74,left) and Trevor Olson converge on Idaho’s Brady Norrish during Saturday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Sunday’s rematch will bring a different set of challenges as because of scheduling, the contest will be played at the RDV Sportsplex Ice Den on the Olympic configured rink. The change in location has brought Aliu’s knowledge of the configuration from having played in Europe into play.
“It’s [difference between Olympic and pro/North American rink setups] night and day. In Europe the game is different. It’s a little bit more of a puck possession game [while] in North America at just about every level it is north-south,” Aliu explained. “In Europe if you don’t have a play you’re bringing it back and the guys are coming at you with speed so in that aspect I think it won’t be a huge change for the guys because you’re not going to change your system for one game. You alwayd have an extra second or two with the puck because there’s so much more room on the ice. The defensive zone coverage is super tough because you have so much area to cover. The angles for the goalies are obviously different so that sometimes people say that they’re shooting from farther [out] but the angles are off, not what they see every day. There’s a lot of little things to look at.”
Notes: Final shots were 35-30 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears ended up 1-for-2 on the power play while the Steelheads went 1-for-4 with the man advantage… Idaho’s Sholl finished the night with 29 saves in suffering his 11th loss of the season to go with 21 victories… The four point (1 goal, 3 assists) night by Bourke was his team-leading third of the season and his 10th multi-point game overall. He also extended his point streak to four games (3 goals, 8 assists) and the goal he netted was his 50th professional tally… McAuley played in his 100th professional game on Saturday, extending his goal streak to three games (5 goals) in the process… Orlando’s Cody Donaghey extended his point streak to three games (1 goal, 4 assists)… The Solar Bears win combined with a loss by South Carolina on Saturday reduced Orlando’s magic number to lock up a playoff spot to six points.
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