The Orlando Solar Bears were on the attack for the majority of the game. They were controlling the pace and keeping the tempo to their liking. Everything was being thrown at the net and the door kept on getting locked.
The Solar Bears would keep pushing.
For the Florida Everblades? They waited. And they took advantage of their opportunities when the mistakes came. They were outshot 34-22 but the shots that mattered they buried. The mistakes the Solar Bears made, they buried.
Orlando could play as good a game as it wanted and try to brush off the mistakes they made. But results matter at this stage of the season.
And the three goals the Solar Bears gave up came off preventable mistakes that they cannot correct in practice.
The final result was the Florida Everblades leaving Amway Center with a 3-2 win over the Orlando Solar Bears on Wednesday. Orlando now trails the Elmira Jackals for the final playoff spot by five points with six games remaining.
“I really liked our puck possession,” coach Anthony Noreen said. “I liked our power play. I thought we made plays. I thought we had the better of the chances. Honestly here were a lot of things I liked. I just didn’t like the result. At this point of the year, we’ve got to get the result.”
The Solar Bears gave up two unassisted goals in the first two periods, both off defensive mistakes as they tried to leave the zone.
First Spencer McAvoy was attempting to leave the zone when Brendan O’Donnell picked his pocket and went in on Ryan Massa to beat him to the back of the net.
In the second period, Eric Baier was sending the puck back to the blue line on the power play when Gabriel Desjardins shot into the lane and got a shorthanded breakaway for a goal.
There were a few other shaky passes and defensive positioning errors the Solar Bears were able to withstand, but the Everblades seemed always ready to pounce. They went up 3-1 on a beautiful 3-on-1 rush and passing display that ended with Matt Marquardt finding Corey Cowick for a goal.
It was the kind of mistakes, Noreen said, you cannot coach out of the game. The kind of mistakes that happen in the course of every game. These mistakes stood out because they resulted directly in goals and were extremely rare for players like this.
There was nothing the team could do but move forward.
“We have good leadership on this team,” T.J. Foster said. “They control the bench well. They said, ‘Don’t worry about it guys, we’ll go out and get it back.’ You can’t get down on teammates, you can’t get down on each other. That’s when the bench gets sour and you don’t play your game. This far into the season, it happens. You just have to keep each other up and play hard.”
What was and is important is how a team responds to those mistakes. The Solar Bears continued to keep the pressure on the Everblades and press for opportunities. They had five power plays and scored both goals on special teams.
The first came on a gorgeous pass across the circles from Denver Manderson to T.J. Foster. The second came in the third period with about four minutes to play when Eric Faille drove the net and beat Peters.
Otherwise Peters was extremely difficult to crack as the Solar Bears sent a barrage of shots at him — 16 in the final period alone — and he stood tall.
The fact the Solar Bears controlled the tempo showed Noreen the team was not taken aback by these critical errors. If the team had gotten hemmed in their zone and started giving away more opportunities that would have been concerning to him.
“Mistakes happen throughout the game,” Eric Faille said. “There are always little mistakes that happen. We have got to move past that. We have to find ways to put the puck in the net. We just got to find that hole and put it in.”
Ultimately, the Solar Bears can feel good about their performance. Noreen has said throughout the year after losses like this that the team played well within its structure and just could not find the goals to win. This was certainly that game.
But there was no talk of structure. Process does not trump results at this stage of the season. Orlando needs every win it can get in the final six games to make the Playoffs. Against the Florida and South Carolina, that path will not be easy. Conceding two points matters.
This was a game the Solar Bears had to win. A game they played well enough to win for the most part. A game they let go.
Those mistakes may not be completely preventable. They may be easy to put behind. But they mattered in this game and for this season.
Every point matters.
“If we don’t get two points from here on out, it’s a missed opportunity,” Noreen said. “I think it’s certainly something to build from. I don’t think anyone is sitting there saying they are that much better than us or we got outplayed. Credit to them, they defended well. Bottom line we have to have a short memory and get ready for South Carolina on Friday.”
