The difference between an Evansville IceMen team that wins as it did Friday night or loses as it has much of this season?
Wade Macleod doesn’t know.
“I’ve been here three games, and we’ve actually won all three,” the forward said. “I think in those we kind of got some momentum and rolled with it.”
The IceMen certainly did on Friday, using a four-goal second period to come back and beat the Orlando Solar Bears 5-1. The victory snapped a three-game Evansville losing streak as well as marked the most goals scored in a period this season by the IceMen.
Macleod put Evansville on the board before forward Josh Beaulieu’s team-leading 14th goal marked the go-ahead score 12:38 into the second period.
“Most guys down here don’t really know who (Macleod) is or what he’s been able to do,” said Evansville coach Rich Kromm. “He’s only been able to play three games down here, and he’s been productive in all of them. He hasn’t had time to develop a reputation, but I think in a hurry he will.”
Macleod, who earlier this season notched a hat trick in his first game in Evansville, saw action in six contests with the Triple-A Springfield (Mass.) Falcons before the Columbus Blue Jackets’ organization sent him back to the IceMen for Friday’s game.
The Canadian native playing his second professional season aspires to move back up a level when the NHL’s lockout is over.
“We had a lot of guys in Springfield, and it just worked out that I’d be playing one game every once in a while,” Macleod said. “Hopefully, they wanted me to come back down here and get my game legs under because they’ll lose a lot of guys soon.
“It’s a tough year for a lot of guys. Everybody kind of gets bumped down a league. But I’m pretty sure if the lockout ends, I’ll be back up there.”
Forwards Sebastian Wannstrom and Dylan Clarke also added goals during the second to round out Evansville’s most explosive offensive period this season, and Nathan Moon scored late in the third.
Those came in response to a Solar Bears goal just three minutes into the first. From there, goaltender Paul Dainton shut out the visitors to earn his first win in goal in front of an announced crowd of 4,377.
The win marked just the IceMen’s second this season when they trailed after the first period, and the deficit would have been worse had another goal not been disallowed in the second period.
“I thought we just controlled play in the offensive zone, worked the back of the net and didn’t force plays that weren’t there,” Kromm said. “The guys were patient and took what was there.”
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