GREENVILLE, SC – During its time in the ECHL, the Orlando Solar Bears franchise has seen its share of goaltenders who have gone on to have success in the ECHL, AHL and the NHL. John Curry, Darcy Kuemper, Christopher Gibson, Garret Sparks, Kasimir Kaskisuo, Rob Madore, Ryan Massa, Martin Ouellette, Cal Heeter, Mitch Gillam, Connor Ingram and Zach Fucale are all names that come to mind when thinking about the netminders that have suited up and manned the cages in the City Beautiful.
Saturday night at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Clint Windsor added his name to that conversation.
Windsor stopped all 23 shots he faced and his teammates gave him enough support on offense as the Solar Bears (24-17-3-1) pitched a 3-0 shutout at the host Greenville Swamp Rabbits (20-14-9-3) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,237. The shutout was Windsor’s second of the season and sixth during his pro career in Orlando, tying him with Sparks for most clean sheets in a Solar Bears uniform.
Tyler Bird, Nolan Valleau and Matthew Spencer provided the goals in the contest for the Solar Bears, who leapfrogged Greenville into third place in the Eastern conference by a points percentage differential of .013. Orlando is also starting to close in on second place Indy, which leads the Solar Bears by .053 in points percentage and five actual standings points (57-52).
The opening period of Saturday’s battle – the third this week since Tuesday – did not have much to offer. Neither team was able to find the back of the net and there were no penalties called on either side. Orlando controlled the shot clock, outshooting Greenville by a margin of 16-7.
The Solar Bears opened the scoring 64 seconds into the second frame. Buzzing around the Swamp Rabbits defensive zone, the puck was worked back to Karlis Cukste who fired at the net. It did not get all the way to Greenville netminder Ryan Bednard but J.J. Piccinich managed to corral the loose biscuit and forced the goalie to make a stop. The rebound went below the goal line where Kyle Topping grabbed it and tried a wraparound at the far post. The puck sailed through the crease toward the near side faceoff circle where Bird got to it and slid it home for his 11th of the season.
Orlando’s power play, which entered the game with man advantage goals in each of the previous three games, got its second opportunity 11:12 into the period and quickly made Greenville pay. After controlling the offensive zone faceoff, the Solar Bears worked the puck around until Aaron Luchuk sent a cross-ice pass to Topping who was a the far side point. He dished it back to Valleau who nailed a one-time howitzer blast and with Chrils LeBlanc throwing a screen in front, Bednard had no chance. Valleau’s fourth of the year made it 2-0, which was where it stayed heading to the final twenty minutes of play.
As the third period opened, tempers began to flare (actually it was a holdover from the very end of the second) with plenty of pushing, shoving and hacking along the way. While all that was going on, Windsor was focused on getting the “W” for his team with a chance for a shutout looming. His teammates were able to limit the Swamp Rabbits to just six shot on their netminder, even with having three power play opportunities in the stanza to potentially help boost the numbers.
The third of those man-down situations helped to create the final goal of the night. With less than two minutes left in regulation and Greenville’s goalie pulled for a six-on-four advantage, Spencer sealed the deal when he batted the puck toward his defensive blueline, chased it down, skated it out along the near boards past a couple of defenders and scored into the empty cage for his second of the season.
With the win, Orlando improved to 6-1-0-0 against Greenville this season. The teams will meet again Sunday afternoon a 3:05 p.m. in Greenville.
Notes: Final shots were 42-23 in favor of the Solar Bears… Orlando went 1-for-3 on the power play while Greenville finished 0-for-4… The Solar Bears Luchuk (5 games) and Topping (3 games) extended points streaks while Bird scored a goal in his second consecutive game… Windsor reached six career shutouts in 64 games played with Orlando. Sparks hit the same number in 53 games, five of them coming during the 2014-15 season… The Solar Bears are now 24-3-1-0 when scoring three or more goals this season.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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