ESTERO, FLA – During the weekend of December 27-28, the Orlando Solar Bears split a pair of games against the Florida Everblades. At the same time, the Solar Bears made Everblades netminder Allen York look human, scoring eight times in the two games.
As it turned out, all Orlando did was make York hungry for revenge.
Friday night at the Germain Arena, York more than made up for his prior two contests against the Solar Bears by making 31 saves in a 2-0 win over Orlando. The victory was York’s fifteenth of the season in nineteen appearances and his second whitewashing of the Everblades’ in-state rival.
In being shutout for the second time this season, Orlando (15-14-3-0, 33 points) wasted a solid performance from goalie Kent Patterson. Patterson stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced in the contest but took the loss just as he had on November 1st when York posted the goose egg against the Solar Bears.
Solar Bears head coach Vince Williams was back from his family leave and his team, which had been idle since before New Year’s, looked ready to atone for its last game – a 6-5 loss to the Everblades. The defense, anchored by Patterson, withstood three Florida power plays and even out chanced the host team. Brady Vail came the closest to scoring a short-handed goal when he collected a rebound of his own shot and beat York but the shot rang off the intersection of the post and crossbar.
Not too long after Vail’s near miss, Denver Manderson had a chance of his own and went high with a shot that caught York on the mask and bounded away. It would become a recurring theme as York fended off all 15 Solar Bears shots in the opening frame while Patterson kept the game even with eight saves of his own.
The Everblades gathered themselves during the intermission and came out with their shooting skates on in the second. They piled four shots on Patterson in the first five minutes of the stanza, putting plenty of pressure on the visitors’ defense. Tensions flared six minutes in when Florida’s Tyson Gimblett and Orlando’s Carl Nielsen dropped the gloves for a heavyweight bout.
Patterson seemed to be getting more and more confident with each save. He was particularly sharp during an Everblades man advantage when Jeff Costello got not one but two point blank chances that the Orlando netminder turned back. By the end of the frame, the Solar Bears were able to test York but failed to dent the scoreboard, sending the game to the final twenty minutes deadlocked at 0-0.
Orlando figured it was in a good spot because it has been a good third period team for much of the season. Florida (24-5-0-1, 49 points) had other ideas, coming out and turning the game around in the space of 1:13.
Just 1:47 into the period, Cameron Burt made a perfect cross-ice feed to Mitch Wahl who banged a one-timer past Patterson on the first shot of the frame to put the Everblades in front. Seconds later, a high sticking penalty to Nielsen put Florida on its seventh power play of the game and the league’s top man advantage finally took advantage. Again Burt played a role as he set up Costello for his eighth tally of the season and in the blink of an eye the home team had two shots and two goals.
Still figuring they had seventeen minutes of regulation time left to mount a comeback, the Solar Bears tried to get their offense started. This time it was not to be as Florida proved why it has the best winning percentage in the ECHL.
The Everblades clamped down hard, holding Orlando without a shot until the 12:24 mark of the stanza. When the Solar Bears did have chances, York was there to make the save or a shot would catch iron and bounce the other way. Williams pulled Patterson with two minutes left but Florida was just too strong, finishing out the win by killing off a truncated Orlando power play in the final 41 seconds.
The two teams will face off again Saturday night in southwest Florida with puck drop set for 7 pm.
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