Orlando, FL – The Orlando Solar Bears defeated the Atlanta Gladiators 5-1 on Wednesday night at Kia Center. Orlando’s Anthony Bardaro scored three times to help the Solar Bears to a 5-1 win over the Gladiators.
In the third game of a four-game road trip, the Gladiators arrived at Kia Center for their final matchup in central Florida with the Solar Bears. Ethan Haider earned the start in net for the Gladiators, while Connor Ungar got the nod in net for Orlando.
Atlanta got off to a good start, testing Ungar early and getting shots on goal with sustained offensive zone time. The Solar Bears were able to shrug off the early push from the Gladiators to keep the game scoreless. The Gladiators had a power play opportunity with a little over five minutes left in the first period but came up empty handed. Orlando got a chance of their own moments later and cashed in on it, with Anthony Bardaro scoring with 2:19 left in the opening frame. Bardaro’s goal came on a shot from the right circle and was assisted by Aaron Luchuk and Logan Britt. Orlando led 1-0 after the first period as the Gladiators outshot the Solar Bears 9-7.
The Solar Bears dominated in the second period scoring 4:49 into the middle frame to take a 2-0 lead with another goal from Bardaro. His second goal of the game made it 2-0 and was assisted by Jarid Lukosevicius and Aaron Luchuk. For much of the period, the Gladiators were held without a shot on goal and Orlando added another goal from Cole Kodsi with 1:59 left to make it 3-0. The Gladiators coughed up the puck to Andrew Bruder who found Kodsi open for the score. Orlando led Atlanta 3-0 after two periods and 18-16 in the shot count.
Orlando made it a 4-0 hockey game with a goal from Bruder 3:02 into the period from Dustin Geregach and Dyllan Gill. The Gladiators got on the board and broke Ungar’s shutout bid with a goal from Kalan Lind 7:18 into the third. Lind’s goal was assisted by Brendan Less, as Less set up Lind to go from his own blue line all the way around Ungar for the goal. Atlanta did gain some momentum from that goal and tried to rally late but surrendered an empty net goal from Bardaro with 29 seconds to play as the Orlando forward completed the hat trick.
Haider stopped 19/23 in the loss, as the Gladiators went 0/2 on the power play and 1/2 on the penalty kill. Ungar stopped 29/30 for Orlando.