The Orlando Solar Bears are beginning to find themselves and get a little confidence. Things are clicking and they are finding ways to scratch out wins. The team is beginning to grow up.
Again, Orlando faced a deficit and again the team found a way to tie the game and pull ahead. That is something that was missing earlier in the season and something the team has found to climb back into the playoff race.
The Solar Bears scored three times in the third period to take a 4-2 victory over the Atlanta Gladiators at Amway Center on Saturday.
Orlando trailed 2-1 entering the third period and got two first-goals from two players to take the lead before finishing it off with an empty netter.
Veteran defenseman Rory Rawlyk, not a week into his tenure with the Orlando Solar Bears, scored to tie the game early in the third period with a shot from the right circle. Defenseman Branden Miller scored his first career goal of the season to give the Solar Bears the lead with about six and a half minutes to play.
It is rare to see defensemen score and the Solar Bears needed both to take advantage of their opportunities.
Having buried the Atlanta Gladiators the night before with a late-game surge, this was the kind of game the Solar Bears needed to answer.
“We knew they were going to come out and have a strong push after [Friday] night and they did,” Solar Bears coach Anthony Noreen told the Orlando Sentinel. “We did a good job at keeping the first period pretty uneventful. Huge momentum swing in the second when we had an odd-man breakdown one way, and they wound up coming down the other way and getting a goal.
“We very easily could have let that be the defining moment we were talking about right now.”
These were the opportunities the team was continually missing earlier in the season. The opportunities they are not burying to climb in the standings.
Orlando has won its last four games. That has helped the team rise to 10th in the standings, bringing the Playoffs back into clearer view.
It has all been earned too. The Solar Bears have grown up in a whole lot of ways and are beginning to deliver.
