ECHL Orlando Solar Bears

Special Teams Lift Orlando to 4-2 Win over Gwinnett

February 22, 2013 - ECHL (ECHL)
Orlando Solar Bears News Release


Orlando, FL - The Solar Bears scored once on the power play and once shorthanded in the third period to snap a 2-2 tie and collect the eventual 4-2 victory over the Gwinnett Gladiators in front of 7,448 fans at the Amway Center on Friday night.

For the second straight game, the Gladiators jumped out to a 1-0 lead before the halfway point of the first period. F Evan Bloodoff led a 3-on-2 into the attacking zone, cut to the slot, and lifted a wrister into the top right corner to put Gwinnett on the board 6:03 into the game. It turned out to be the lone goal scored in the opening 20 minutes, as the Gladiators took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

Orlando knotted up the contest early in the second frame. C Ryan Cruthers had an initial pass blocked in the slot, but it came right back to him and he found C Mathew Sisca open on the right wing. Sisca one-timed the pass into the back of the net at 4:53 to tie the game at 1-1. D Michael Wilson then granted the Solar Bears their first lead of the night when he finished off a 3-on-2 rush with a wrist shot into the bottom corner of the net with 7:47 to play in the second stanza. Gwinnett struck back back before the end of the frame, as F Casey Pierro-Zabotel converted on a power play goal from the right circle with 52 seconds to play, tying the game at 2-2 going into the third period.

Special teams proved to be the answer for Orlando in the final stanza. Sisca snapped the 2-2 score when he fired a slap shot from the top of the slot at 7:15 of the frame for his second goal of the game, this one coming on the power play. The Solar Bears gave themselves some breathing room late in regulation when Wilson tapped a puck off the glass to spring Cruthers on a shorthanded rush. The Solar Bears captain took the puck up the right wing and fired a wrist shot just inside the right goal post for his 20th goal of the season with 2:32 remaing to seal the 4-2 victory for the Solar Bears.

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ECHL Stories from February 22, 2013


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