The Orlando Solar Bears so often this season have put in strong performances only to come back the next outing with a lackluster effort. Whether it came after a road trip or while the team was at home between series, the Solar Bears never seemed to sustain momentum.
It looked that way through two periods as the Orlando Solar Bears lost a 2-0 lead and went to the third period tied at three. They gave up a goal in the final minute of each period. These were the games where the young Solar Bears had collapsed before.
Not this team. Not after the energetic Solar Bears scored a big series victory over the Adirondack Thunder and looked inspired doing so. Not with the Playoffs squarely on the line. Not with so much to lose and still an opportunity to make up ground.
Orlando exploded for three goals in the third period to defeat the Greenville Swamp Rabbits 6-3 for the team’s seventh win in the last eight games and eight win in the last 10 games. That brings the Solar Bears within two points — that is one win — of the eighth-place Elmira Jackals. And Orlando has two games in hand.
The Playoffs are very much within reach.
“[This victory] was huge,” coach Anthony Noreen told Zach Oliver of the Orlando Sentinel. “We needed it at home. We needed to get on a little bit of a roll at home, and now we’ve kind of got the monkey off our back and know we’re capable of playing our type of hockey, not just on the road but at home.”
To do that with the team struggling so much entering the third period and potentially losing momentum was critical.
The Solar Bears re-seized the lead quickly into the third period when Erik Bradford score less than two minutes into the period. Brady Vail scored less than a minute later to give the Solar Bears a two-goal lead again.
Orlando got those goals with good rushes beating the defense down the ice and beating Mackenzie Skapski. It was the kind of pinpoint passing the Solar Bears were sometimes lacking this season. Right now the team is just sharp and on.
Rylan Schwartz is evidence of that too. He nearly scored a hat trick on the final goal before the goal was credited to T.J. Foster for tipping his shot in. Schwartz scored the Solar Bears’ first two goals of the game to get that initial 2-0 lead.
Schwartz also assisted on Johnny McInnis’ first-period goal too. It was a good night for the veteran forward.
It has been a good few weeks for the Solar Bears. They snapped to attention in the third period and gutted out a win they certainly would not have gotten a few months before in the season.
And now the Playoffs are firmly in reach. The Solar Bears may control their own destiny with those games in hand.
