Marino Becomes Beast All-Time Points Leader in Close Loss to Solar Bears 

BRAMPTON, ONTARIO – Brampton Beast captain Brandon Marino earned an assist on Connor Crisp’s first period tally to earn his 101st point in a Beast jersey, making him the all-time franchise leader in points, but the visiting Orlando Solar Bears scored three third-period goals to steal a 5-3 win over the Beast at the Powerade Centre on Thursday night.

Marino ended the night with a goal and an assist while Crisp and David Vallorani each added singles for Brampton, who saw their mini two-game winning streak snapped.

The Solar Bears came out flying to start the period and opened up an 11-0 edge on the shot clock thanks to some early penalty trouble for the Beast.

The Beast did a fantastic job weathering the barrage of Orlando chances and earned some momentum thanks to fantastic penalty killing. Vallorani got the Beast on the board at the 9:26 mark of the opening frame. Cutting in on an odd-man rush, Vallorani one-timed a pass from Brandon MacLean into the open Orlando net, giving Vallorani his 28th goal of the campaign.

The Beast pushed their lead to 2-0 just over two minutes later as Crisp capitalized on a broken play in front of Solar Bears starter Ryan Massa. It took the Beast forward a couple of whacks in front of the net before sliding home his 12th goal of the season at 11:45.

The goal, assisted by David Ling and Marino, gave the Beast captain 101 points in a Beast uniform, surpassing Jason Pitton’s previous record of 100 points, compiled between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons.

Denver Manderson got the visitors on the board at the 17:23 mark of the opening period, cutting the Beast lead to 2-1 heading into the first intermission with Orlando owning a 21-10 edge on the shot clock.

Brenden Miller tied the game just 4:37 into the second period but the Beast would respond in a big way.

David Pacan cut into the Orlando zone and found Marino with a perfect pass. Marino roofed the puck over Massa for his second point of the night, restoring the Beast lead at 15:59.

The Solar Bears pulled ahead for good in the third period as Eric Faille scored a trio of third period tallies including an empty netter to seal the win for Orlando.

Zach Fucale had a strong game between the pipes for the Beast and finished the game with 34 saves. The Beast were 1-for-4 on the power play and 6-for-7 on the penalty kill.

Molson Three Stars: 3) Vallorani (BRM) 2) Marino (BRM) 1) Faille (ORL). The Beast have two games remaining in the current three-game series with the Solar Bears. Game Two goes tomorrow night at the Powerade Centre at 7:15PM