Eagles Fall 4-3 to Solar Bears

Everything was going quite well for the Eagles as they would hold a 3-1 lead over the Solar Bears after forty minutes. However, things would change as the Solar Bears would find their legs, and score 3 unanswered goals to top the Eagles 4-3 at the Budweiser Events Center on Friday night. The loss is the Eagles third consecutive loss, and now puts them in 2nd place in the Pacific division.

The Solar Bears would get on the board first, with a shot from the point from defenseman Nikolas Brouillard beating Clarke Saunders to give the Solar Bears the 1-0 lead 3:53 into the game. The score would remain 1-0 in favor of the Solar Bears following the first period of play.

Midway through the second period, the Eagles would tie up the game with deflected tip-in goal coming from Eagles forward Matt Garbowsky on an Eagles power play. The Eagles would continue to build on this momentum when Eagles forward Casey Pierro-Zabotel would stuff in a rebound on top of the crease to give the Eagles the 2-1 lead with only 48 seconds remaining in the 2nd period.

The Eagles would expand their lead by two goals when forward Ryan Harrison would find the back of the net with a slapshot from the point to give the Eagles the 3-1 lead.

Here is when things would take a turn for the worse for the Eagles, as the Solar Bears would find the back of the net four minutes later with a shorthanded goal from Solar Bears forward Denver Manderson.

The Solar Bears would then tie up the game 3-3 with a goal from Solar Bears forward Alex Gacek. The Solar Bears would convert for another goal when they would go on their fifth powerplay of the game, as Solar Bears defenseman Brendan Miller would convert with a shot from the point to give the Solar Bears the 4-3 lead with 6:30 remaining in the final frame. The Eagles would pull Clarke Saunders in an attempt to tie up the game, but would ultimately be unable to.

The Eagles continue their three-game series against the Orlando Solar Bears on Saturday, January 7th at 7:05pm MT.