ECHL Orlando Solar Bears

Big Third Period for Greenville as Bears Fall to Road Warriors

January 11, 2013 - ECHL (ECHL)
Orlando Solar Bears News Release


Greenville, SC - The Orlando Solar Bears saw a 3-2 score heading into the third period explode into a 9-3 defeat with a depleted lineup against the Greenville Road Warriors at the BI-LO Center on Friday night.

The Road Warriors wasted no time getting on the board, as F Marc-Olivier Vallerand took the puck up the right wing and found C Brendan Connolly all alone in front of the net to give Greenville a 1-0 lead just 22 seconds into the game. The Solar Bears evened up the scoring 1:20 later when RW Dan Gendur found C Darick Ste-Marie open in the low slot, and Ste-Marie fired a one-timer through the legs of G Scott Stajcer to make the game 1-1. Greenville regained the lead less than four minutes later, when F Levi Nelson led a 2-on-1 into the zone and picked the top [image: Mike Liambas]corner of the net to put Greenville ahead 2-1 at the 5:02 mark. It was the final goal of the opening frame, as Greenville held on to the 2-1 advantage going into the second period.

A second early-period goal in the middle frame put the Road Warriors ahead by two. F Brandon Wong received a pass on the right wing and quickly snapped a shot just inside the right goal post at 2:13. The Solar Bears responded on a tremendous individual effort from Gendur with 7:30 to play in the frame. The Solar Bears right wing batted a puck out of mid-air, raced up the ice, and after a quick move to the slot he snapped a shot into the back of the net to bring the score back to 3-2, where it stood through the remainder of the middle stanza.

Things fell apart for the Solar Bears in the third period, where the ECHL's top-scoring third period team took control. 1:28 into the frame, Wong picked up his second goal of the contest by banking a shot off of Toivonen, opening up the flood gates for Connolly's second at 3:08, a power play goal by F Danny Hobbs at 7:22, and Connolly's hat trick goal at 12:36 to make the score 7-2. D Lee Baldwin chased Toivonen from the game with Greenville's eighth goal at 13:38 before Ste-Marie picked up his second goal of the game for Orlando at 15:10 of the third. Connolly struck for his fourth and the game's final goal on a 5-on-3 with 2:29 left to play for the final 9-3 score.

Three Stars: 1. B. Connolly (GRN); 2. B. Wong (GRN); 3. D. Hobbs (GRN) Power Plays: ORL: 0/4; GRN: 2/6 Shots: ORL: 26; GRN: 37

Notes: F Michael Neal played in his 200th professional game... D Mike Kavanagh made his Solar Bears debut tonight... C Darick Ste-Marie scored his first and second Solar Bears goals tonight... Orlando has six players in their lineup that were playing either at the single A level or not on a team at the start of the season. They have five players out of the lineup due to injury (S. Lorenz, R. Ginand, C. Baldwin, C. Lawrence, M. Brodeur) and seven players recalled the the AHL. Four are with Houston (N. Petersen, R. Mignardi, K. Medvec, J. Caron), one in Worcester (M. Wilson), one with Hamilton (O. Fortier), and one with Portland (B. Lampman), which would represent 11 of the 16 skaters that can be dressed for a contest.

Get Tickets: The Solar Bears are on the road for one more game and return to the Amway Center to face the Wheeling Nailers on Thursday, January 17, at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, January 19, at 7:00 p.m., and Monday, January 21, for a special holiday start time of 3:00 p.m. Good seats are still available. Visit www.OrlandoSolarBearsHockey.com .

The Orlando Solar Bears, the ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Minnesota Wild and AHL's Houston Aeros, play all of their home games at the 2012 Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal Sports Facility of the Year, the Amway Center.

Individual tickets for all regular season home games are on sale beginning as low as $15. To purchase your tickets, please visit www.OrlandoSolarBearsHockey.comor the Amway Center Box Office.

Check out the Orlando Solar Bears Statistics



ECHL Stories from January 11, 2013


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