There were plenty of reasons to feel the hockey gods would allow karma to take over and deliver the Orlando Solar Bears a win.
The six power plays, each earned with fast feet and a determination to drive to the net gave the Orlando Solar Bears every opportunity to win the game. The team killed off two 4-on-3 power players in overtime with goalie Rob Madore sprawling to make saves. The Solar Bears had the better chances throughout the third period, especially in the final moments before the regulation horn sounded.
The shootout though is fickle. The goal is simply to keep more goals out than the other goalie. And sometimes even that is too simplistic and too harsh a way to determine who gets two points.
Ben Marshall in the fifth round of the shootout held his shot to the last moment, getting Madore to lean too far to the other side before cutting back and firing a shot to the top of the net, over the sprawling Madore, to deliver the Indy Fuel a 3-2 win at the Amway Center in front of the second largest crowd of the season at an announced 8,544 attendance.
Madore made plenty of saves and stood tall for most of the game, but he was just one save short in the end.
“Obviously, when it’s 3-on-3 it’s pretty wide open and you can put out some high skill guys,” Madore said. “And you have a good chance of winning the game. When you go down 4-on-3, it takes away a lot of those opportunities. I thought the guys played a good game, especially in overtime. To have two kills on 4-on-3 is really impressive.”
Orlando always had a deficit to climb out of in this game, it seemed, going down by one goal twice and then facing a 4-on-3 power play through much of the five-minute overtime period.
Patrick Watling was called for hooking 16 seconds into the overtime and Nicklas Lindberg was called for tripping shortly after Watling’s power play ended.
Orlando got some fantastic saves from Madore and emerged from the penalty with great chances from Jack Rodewald and Johnny McInnis skating and crashing hard to the net.
The Solar Bears were seemingly on the front foot for much of the third period and through overtime when the teams were at even strength. The two teams ended the game even in shots, but Orlando, usually pretty picky with its shot opportunities, was more than willing to fire away.
The Solar Bears evened the game with their lone power play goal of the night when Nicklas Lindberg found Brady Vail in the faceoff circle for a one timer. A turnover gave Alex Lavoie the go-ahead goal, but there seemed little doubt Orlando would even the score.
“As far as scoring chances went, I thought by far we had the better looks,” coach Anthony Noreen said. “For us, especially late in the third, we had enough looks to win it. The guy whose sticks they are on, you feel like if you keep getting those you are going to get goals and win hockey games.”
The Solar Bears had the right guys with the shots throughout much of the game. And they had their chances too.
The Solar Bears earned six power plays including a 3:40 stretch in the second period with back to back power plays and 20 seconds with a 5-on-3. Orlando could not score though.
In the second period alone, Orlando had four power plays, scoring on one when Lindberg found Vail in the circle to tie the game at one. There was audible frustration from the Orlando crowd as the team struggled to put shots on net in the power play. It did not mean the team was not the more aggressive team, but the Solar Bears stayed perhaps overly patient.
Noreen said the team felt confidence heading into the second intermission and came out and owned the final 20 minutes of regulation.
“What I really like about this team right now is no matter what the score has been going into the next period, especially the third period, I feel like we have confidence,” coach Anthony Noreen said. “We walked in between that second and third period, I didn’t think there was any doubt that we were going to tie this game up. I think now that we’ve done it a couple times, it gives you confidence to do it the next time.”
A little more than a minute into the third period, Lindberg found Rodewald crashing the net hard and fed a perfect centering pass onto his stick to tie the game. The game was tied and Orlando has the confidence to keep pushing and trying to break through Shane Owen and the Indy Fuel’s defense.
It is probably why Noreen said he would have liked to have seen his team get the chance to build some momentum with three on three — power plays in overtime go back to four on three with the teams playing four on four until the next stoppage in play. That opportunity was frittered away.
Watling was the only player to score in the shootout as the players made their best chances at goal. It took some incredible patience from Marshall to beat Madore and the Solar Bears had the game-tying goal in that round on captain Eric Baier’s stick. There was not much more the team could ask for.
Orlando just could not put the puck in the back of the net. The team dug deep to come from behind on two occasions, but could not pull ahead despite some very strong play.
The Solar Bears fell behind early on a goal from Cody Sharib when he grabbed a rebound from behind the net and poked it past Madore as he tried to recover. Those were the kind of goals it would take to beat Madore as he was manning his crease well and keeping Indy from getting too far away.
The team always had a response, until there was not any time to do so.
“I think we responded well,” Lindberg said. “It was kind of a weird game with all the special teams. It was a weird flow to the game int eh beginning and then getting two calls in overtime was tough. The guys that were out there killing it off. Should have won the shootout, but what can you do?”
