ORLANDO, FLA – On a night where emotions were running higher than a normal opening night, the Orlando Solar Bears put on a show that made their fans believe that ten just could be a magic number.
Paced by two goals from Matt Rupert and a four point night by Florida native Brady Vail, the Solar Bears doubled up on the Greenville Swamp Rabbits by a final score of 6-3. The game was not as close as the score indicated as the host Solar Bears showed the promise that comes with a top-to-bottom affiliation buy-in.
“Maybe it’s coming from junior hockey to pro hockey but you expect a little more, I don’t want to say sloppy play, but getting the timing right, getting used to each other,” Orlando head coach Anthony Noreen said after his first professional coaching victory. “I really thought from the drop of the puck [that] we were pretty on-key with each other. It helped spending that month with a lot of those guys together up in Toronto but on the same point, there were a lot of guys who were new guys coming in to play on lines. I thought they clicked pretty well.”
With more than half the team being assigned to Orlando by the AHL Toronto Marlies, most of that group spent close to a month together before coming south and the chemistry manifested itself in the form of dominating a division rival. The fact that 12 of Orlando’s total of 14 points in the contest came off the sticks of Toronto-contracted players sent notice that the Solar Bears could be a force in the ECHL this season.
The night started off with the announced crowd of 9,366 fans coming off a summer-long hockey drought being treated to an emotional tribute to IHL Solar Bears public address announcer Scott McKenzie. The tribute kicked off the 10th anniversary season of Solar Bears hockey (six in the original IHL and starting the fourth in the ECHL) that had the crowd ready to go from the start. The energy in the Amway Center was off the charts and its stayed that way throughout the game.
“Once I got here, I could tell the arena was nice and when I stepped onto the ice I could see all the fans going crazy,” Rupert, whose brother Ryan wore the Solar Bears jersey a year ago, said. “It was an incredible atmosphere. It was incredible to play for the Solar Bears tonight and [it was] a good experience for me and a young team.”
That youth was served less than three minutes into the game thanks to an early man advantage. Patrick Watling sent the puck down to the boards below Greenville’s defensive goal line. Jack Rodewald got to the puck first and instinctively whipped a behind-the-back, no-look pass to the front of the net. The puck went straight to the spot where Vail had set up and before Swamp Rabbits goalie Allen York could react it was in the net.
“It was a great pass. He’s quite the player. He does his best work down low,” Vail said of Rodewald, who has been his linemate for almost six weeks now. “When he got it through, I had a whole net and it was easy to put in.”
The speed and puck control style with which the Solar Bears played – a product of Noreen’s coaching and the Toronto systems he learned while working with the Maple Leafs and Marlies staffs in September – created numerous odd-man breaks. One of those rushes just before the midpoint of the opening period led to Johnny McInnis feeding Rupert for a quick redirect past York to double the lead for the home team. Greenville got one score back when a defensive lapse allowed Swamp Rabbits sniper Jack Combs to get loose for a backhander that went up and over Orlando netminder Rob Madore to make it a 2-1 game heading into the first intermission.
Orlando’s speed game haunted Greenville in the second period, creating a scoring opportunity which led to the Solar Bears’ third tally. Brett Findlay, an “old-timer” by the current standard (another player who spent time in Central Florida last year), received a pass and turned on the jets up the left wing. He drove into the Swamp Rabbits end and got loose for a shot that York (24 saves) stopped. York failed to corral the rebound and it slid out to Findlay who from a tough angle put it in the back of the net.
Matt Rupert scored two goals in his Orlando debut (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina/Orlando Solar Bears)
Another odd-man break 6:25 into the third turned into yet more scoring when Vail laid a drop pass to Rupert who fired a screen shot that beat York to make it 4-1. Greenville never gave in and when Scott Fleming and Emerson took advantage of defensive miscues by the Solar Bears, the Swamp Rabbits were within one at 4-3 with nine minutes left in regulation.
The gut check for the Orlando team came in the final minutes when an ill-timed penalty to Brenden Miller created a power play for Greenville. Noreen’s philosophy of being aggressive on the penalty kill paid off 32 seconds into the disadvantage when defense literally turned into offense. Vail and defenseman Eric Baier jumped out on a two-on-one break that ended with Baier shoveling the puck home for a short-handed score. T.J. Foster put the icing on the cake with a shorty into an open net with 1:09 left to close out the scoring.
The beneficiary of the scoring ourburst was Orlando goalie Rob Madore. Despite being beat three times, Madore was solid in his first start for the Solar Bears with 23 saves while providing a steadying hand between the pipes. He said he was duly impressed with how the young Orlando team held together in picking up the win.
“I thought we were awesome [as a team]. Top to bottom I though we had a great game. I know it was a lot of guys’ first pro game so you never know what to expect but I thought everyone played with a lot of poise,” Madore said of the effort. “It’s great to start with a win. You want those two points because over the course of a long season, it doesn’t seem like it would make a huge difference but two points now can be the difference between being a first seed or a fifth seed or making the playoffs or not making the playoffs. Every point is crucial despite the fact that we play 60-plus games.”
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