Rory Rawlyk is not one to score goals. That is often too pretty for this bruiser. Rawlyk had just one goal entering the game. That is fine for him. His reward is a good hit and goal saved.
Except when his team needed one. And needed that extra point.
The Orlando Solar Bears took home the points as Rawlyk tallied his second goal of the year as he redirected a drive from Patrick Watling into the back of the net to give Orlando a 3-2 win over the Manchester Monarchs at Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday.
The Solar Bears held the lead twice and withstood rallies from the Monarchs and a barrage of shots too. Goalie Rob Madore made 36 saves on Manchester’s 38 shots.
Jack Rodewald scored on the Solar Bears’ first power play opportunity for his 13th goal of the season and James Martin responded from an early second period goal to give Orlando a 2-1 lead two minutes after Manchester’s first goal. It was Martin’s first goal with the Solar Bears this year after getting recalled from the Toronto Marlies earlier in the week.
It was a night of redirections and deflections. The kind of things that have to happen for a team to score.
Rodewald and Rawlyk both scored on redirections off of shots from elsewhere on the ice. Martin scored when his shot deflected off a defender’s skate. It does not matter as long as they go in. That has sometimes been an issue for Orlando.
Before the team left for its road trip, coach Anthony Noreen said the team was confident karma from strong play would come back and reward them. It would appear it did in the victory over one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
The two teams will be back at it again Saturday night.
