The Orlando Solar Bears are still looking for the winning touch, but found some momentum and played their best offense in falling 4-3 at Amway Center.
The Orlando Solar Bears had the momentum heading into the final period, stemming the tide of some individual defensive mistakes and four unanswered goals in the latter part of the first period and second period, including two goals within the final three minutes of the period to give Florida a 4-2 lead.
They had built that momentum with their play, staying largely within the structures of their system and getting the most sustained pressure and shot opportunities they had seen at home at least in quite some times. Orlando were the aggressors for most of the game.
Lyndsay Sparks saved momentum with a goal with a second left before the final 20 minutes.
Then Orlando struck gold, or so they thought.
Defender Zach Bell fired from the point and had the shot blocked and deflected back to the blue line. Mark Louis was there to collect it and fired to the right side of the net, beating goalie Anthony Peters to tie the game.
Again, or so they thought.
The official waved off this potential game-tying goal. Coach Anthony Noreen confirmed it was because of goalie interference — a player, whether it was Lindsay Sparks or Erik Bradford, was in the crease and the officials waved off the goal almost immediately.
There was emotion in the Amway Center as “Refs, you suck” chants came raining down from the 7,420 in attendance.
Orlando never quite recovered, maintaining pressure but never getting the pressure or the last push to fully and finally tie the game.
Florida continued its dominance over Orlando with a 4-3 victory at Amway Center on Sunday.
“I thought our guys stuck to it,” coach Anthony Noreen said. “From that point on, it was like the rest of the game. I thought we spent most of the time in the offensive zone. We were in the d-zone very few times all game, we just got to eliminate some mistakes.”
Orlando had its best sustained pressure at home in some time and stayed within their system. The Solar Bears were the team on the forefront for most of the game.
They had 28 shots on goal, but that did not portray how much more possession the team had. For the most part the Solar Bears held the Everblades, the top team in the Eastern Conference, to one shot and little else.
Orlando even turned in its eighth shorthanded goal of the season, an easy push up the ice that found Johnny McInnis taking advantage of the dump into the attacking zone.
The Solar Bears were in control early. And goalie Rob Madore, recently recalled from the Toronto Marlies, was a big part of that.
Madore totaled 28 saves and kept just about everything in front of him. His defense was cleaning up rebounds well in front of him too and clearing the puck out of the defensive zone, something the team has struggled with at various points this season. That transitioned to offense quickly.
The Solar Bears though showed their inexperience and let it slip. Anthony Noreen noted it was a few critical errors that cost them in the end. Many left Madore isolated and unable to recover.
“I thought he made some big saves tonight, especially early,” Noreen said. “A lot of their chances were one and done where it was a big chance or a big breakdown. Those are tough when you haven’t seen much chance. I don’t think by any means he was at fault tonight, I thought he did a really good job.”
Matt Willows got the Everblades on the board first, beating the last defender for a breakaway 2-on-1 to beat Madore. The second goal came when an Everblades player whiffed on a one-timer but the puck fell to Logan Roe who fired it in.
The worst defense came on the third goal as Justin Agosta toe dragged passed two defenders and fired past Madore for the go-ahead goal. Then a beautiful pass with too many players on the strongside from Ryan Martindale to Corey Cowick gave Florida what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
Those five minutes when the Solar Bears gave up those three goals were about as bad as the team has played. And cost them this game, but were the outlier in an otherwise energetic performance.
Noreen said the common theme was the team was a little loose handling the puck in the defensive zone or tentative making plays on defense. Being in between hurt Orlando as it tried to clear play and get back on offense.
Honest mistakes, he said, the team could live with. They just cannot become regular. Except for those five minutes, they were not.
“I loved us tonight,” Noreen said. “I thought it was as good as we have been structurally all year. You look at the goals against, none of them are structural, they were individual big mistakes. While those are hard to live with, at the same time it builds confidence in our guys to know when you do it right you are playing supposedly the best team in the league.”
Orlando jumped out early with the short handed goal from McInnis. Lindsay Sparks added two goals with a nice deke move after a good pass from Bradford around the net.
He then added a breakaway goal off a face off to score with one second before the end of the second period in a big momentum-building moment.
Orlando just never capitalized on the momentum to finish.
“It’s hard to point your finger on one thing,” Sparks said on playing the rival Everblades. “They’re big, they play their system really well. Once we do that, we’ll get some confidence against them and it will start to roll for us. It has been close games every time. We’ll figure it out. We took a good step tonight. It was like three minutes that we didn’t play well and they capitalized with two goals and that was the difference in the game.”
The tone after the game and the frustration with the loss were normal for competitors. So too was the focus on how the team is building and taking to the system the team is trying to run. The Solar Bears do have an emphasis after all on developing players and preparing them for the AHL level.
In that sense the Solar Bears certainly played one of their stronger games. The puck possession was good and the overall offensive pressure was good for an Orlando team that has let it slip on occasions and struggled to pick up wins in the process.
There were positive signs, but the loss was definitely not lost on the team. Noreen said heads were not down in the locker room after the game and emotions did not swing wildly. They kept in the game even through challenges.
That is a step forward that might mean wins are on their way. Especially if they get the offense running the way it did for most of Sunday.
Noreen said he is not as worried about the result and more concerned with seeing his team bring the right attitude and improve each game. Wins should come in the process.
The wins though have to come, and no amount of positives erase the fact the team has seven points in the past 13 games.
“We are a young team, but at least calendar-wise midpoint of the season, and those kind of things can’t happen anymore,” Madore said. “We have to take the positives away from it and build on those. But at the same time, there is not a lot of time lef tto be making excuses. It’s time to start winning now and start pulling out of those games with two points instead of one or none.”
