ESTERO, FLA – When it comes to being clutch, no one on the Orlando Solar Bears roster has been hotter than Troy Bourke. Heading into Saturday’s contest with the Florida Everblades, Bourke had been given opportunities in two shootouts and scored both times, one a game winner against Newfoundland and the other a couple of days later that gave the Solar Bears a chance against the same Everblades team.
And with some help from goalie Clint Windsor, Bourke got to play the hero again.
Thanks to an at times spectacular 33-save effort in regulation and overtime by Windsor and Bourke’s third skills competition goal of the month, the Solar Bears (36-23-4-1, 77 points) came away with a gutsy 4-3 shootout victory over the host Everblades (45-16-5-1, 96 points) in front of an announced crowd of 6,774 at Hertz Arena. Michael Brodzinski, Brent Pedersen and Dylan Fitze netted the regulation time goals for Orlando, helping to drop the team’s magic number for securing a spot in the 2019 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs to two points.
Bourke’s goal in round three, though not as spectacular as his attempts against the Growlers and Everblades earlier in the month, was nonetheless more evidence of his scoring skills. Skating in on Florida netminder Jeremy Helvig, Bourke got inside the hashmarks and instead of continuing on to the crease, rifled a wrist shot that beat Helvig to the stick side. That left it up to Windsor, who stoned Everblades sniper Sam Warning to end the game.
Windsor’s night began in a hurry as Florida tried to run their in-state rivals out of the building right off the opening faceoff. The Everblades had five shots in the initial five minutes of play but the Solar Bears rookie was sharp, turning them all away.
It took Orlando 7:45 to record its first shot of the night but just shy of two minutes later, the Solar Bears second attempt lit the goal light. Seconds after a power play expired, Orlando worked the puck around the perimeter in the Florida end. The final pass, made by Otto Somppi, found Michael Brodzinski in the faceoff circle to the right of Helvig. Brodzinski took barely a moment before unleashing a red-hot shot that beat Helvig before he could get to the short side of the net for the San Jose prospect’s 8th goal of the season.
Never ones to shy away froma challenge, the Everblades eventually evened the score late in the first period. Working along the boards, Patrick McCarron curled inside the blueline in the Orlando end and sent the puck at the net. The disc found the stick blade of Grant Arnold, who was uncovered at the crease, and he redirected it into the open side of the net for his second of the season at 15:08 to send the game to the first internission tied at 1-1.
The point-counterpoint established in the opening frame continued in the middle stanza. The Solar Bears struck first again as Pedersen and Tayler Thompson created a rush that led to a shot by Thompson from the high slot. Helvig made the stop but the rebound kicked to his left where Pedersen was standing by himself. Pedersen settled the puck and fired it over the dive of Helvig for his 12th of the season and a 2-1 lead for the visitors 2:40 into the second.
Florida again found a way to even the score, this time using a power play to do it. With ten seconds remaining on a man advantage opportunity, Logan Roe used a wide open passing lane to get the puck to Tommy Thompson just off to the left of Windsor. Thompson calmly pivoted and had enough room and angle to put it into the far side of the cage for his 14th of the year.
A little over a minute later, Orlando was handed its second chance on the power play and made this one count. Taking the puck from Mitch Hults along the boards, Somppi came off the half boards into the faceoff circle to Helvig’s left. He found Fitze wide open a handful of feet outside the crease and threaded a pass tohis temmate. Fitze did the rest, quickly turning and whipped a shot between Helvig’s legs for the rookie’s 11th and a 3-2 lead that the Solar Bears took into the break.
An early penalty on the visitors gave the Everblades a power play 2:22 into the final frame. It took them less than half of the advantage time to score as Shane Walsh whacked the puck off the end boards. Walsh’s geometry was perfect as it went to Nathan Perkovich who banked a shot off of Windsor’s skate for his 22nd of the season.
The teams traded jabs through the rest of the third period but neither Windsor nor Helvig (32 saves) was willing to allow what could have been the deciding tally. In the three-on-three overtime period, Windsor was at his best. Less than a minute in, he took away a golden opportunity from McCarron and later denied Derek Sheppard who got in alone on the Orlando net. Windsor made six saves in the extra frame while Helvig turned away three Solar Bears opportunities to send the contest into a shootout, the second consecutive meeting between the teams that had gone to the skills competition.
In round one, Helvig stopped Brodzinski on a backhander from close in before Perkovich beat Windsor to the stick side to put the Everblades up. Somppi led off round two by getting Helvig to bite on a backhand move before turning on a dime to tuck a forehand into the cage. Windsor then denied Blake Winiecki in the bottom half of the second, setting up the dramatics of Bourke’s score and Windsor’s stoning of Warning to seal the win.
With the win, the Solar Bears secured a victory in the season series between the bitter rivals with a 6-3-1-1 record and just one more regular season contest to go.
Orlando can lock up its third consecutive trip to the post-season (and fifth overall in seven seasons in the ECHL) when it travels to Duluth, Georgia to take on the Atlanta Gladiators on Wednesday. The Solar Bears hold a 5-2-0-0 record in the season series including a 3-1-0-0 mark at the Infinite Energy Arena. The Solar Bears can join both their NHL affiliate, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, who have already qualified for their respective playoffs.
Notes: Final shots were 36-36 including the one shot awarded for the shootout win… The Solar Bears went 1-for-3 on the power play while the Everblades were 2-for-4 with the man advantage… With the win, Windsor improved to 4-0 in his last four starts dating back to January 19th… In roster news, the Lightning reassigned goalie Connor Ingram back to Orlando from AHL Syracuse. Ingram’s stay with the Crunch lasted less than 36 hours as the Lightning and Crunch chose to sign netminder Atte Tolvanen to an AHL contract for the rest of the season, replacing goalie Martin Ouellette who suffered a season-ending injury on Wednesday… A group of Solar Bears fans have set up an auction site with proceeds going to the trust fund set up for the daughter of late Solar Bears season ticket member Ann O’Brien. The auction, which can be found at www.32auctions.com/annsarmy and will go live on April 16th, will feature a number of hockey related items.
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