K-Wings get revenge on Solar Bears

ORLANDO, Fla. – Coaches at every level of athletics spend a lot of time developing plays and systems for one reason: to put their team in the best possible position to win. Of course it helps when the players stick to the systems. Tuesday night at the Amway Center, the Orlando Solar Bears entered the final contest of their seven-game home stand having handled the Kalamazoo K-Wings in the previous two games. Unfortunately for the home team, they headed out of the building on the short end of a 4-3 score with two games on the road against the Gwinnett Gladiators looming on Thursday and Friday. “We didn’t play the way we’re capable of. We didn’t stick to the structure. I think we believed the hype,” Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky said. “We thought we could get away with things when we should have come in and just stuck to our game plan and play the way we’re capable of playing.” After handling the K-Wings in the first two meetings over the weekend, the Solar Bears may have been confident that they could win their third straight. That confidence grew as goalie John Curry was stopping everything in sight, keeping a surging K-Wings offense at bay. Life got even better for Orlando when a late first period power play opportunity led to the game’s first goal when Mat Sisca sailed a saucer pass across the slot to Chris Lawrence who beat Kalamazoo goalie Joel Martin with a wrist shot to the top corner. The visitors didn’t back down and evened the score with just under two minutes left in the opening period. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective as Steven Anthony banked the puck off of Curry and into the net from a tough angle at the 18:03 mark, sending the teams to the intermission tied at 1-1. Anthony’s goal seemed to awaken Kalamazoo’s hunger and they took a big bite out of the Solar Bears in the second. Just 43 seconds into the stanza, K-Wings forward John Armstrong slipped a pass to teammate Kory Karlander. Karlander was allowed to walk in on Curry and beat the Orlando netminder through the five hole to put the visitors in front for good. 33 ticks later, Dustin Cloutier got loose in the slot, took a pass from Nick Sirota and fired it home to quickly bump the margin to 3-1. How well was Kalamazoo playing at the start of the middle stanza? The K-Wings out-shot Orlando 12-0 in the first five minutes and didn’t allow the Solar Bears their first shot on net until the 6:55 mark. Berehowsky said that the slow start in the second was as much about the Solar Bears straying from the game plan as it was the way Kalamazoo was playing. “I just didn’t think we came out and executed the game plan like we wanted to. It’s unfortunate that I think sometimes you get carried away with your success,” he said. “We have to learn that we can’t get too high, we can’t get too low. We just have to be the team that comes out constantly and plays within our structure constantly.” Despite the advantage, Orlando hung in and cut the lead to 3-2 with its second power play goal of the game at the 13:25 mark. The Solar Bears actually had 56 seconds of five-on-three advantage time, but failed to put one past Martin. After the K-Wings got one man back, Nick Petersen, who returned to the team along with Ryan Ginand from Houston on Monday, skated into the slot between the hash marks and ripped a laser into the back of the net. Petersen’s tally was exactly what the Solar Bears needed. They began to pressure the Kalamazoo defense and thought they had a golden opportunity when Rob Mignardi started to drive around a K-Wings defender into the visitors’ zone. Mignardi was taken down and as many of the 5,750 in attendance voiced their displeasure with the referee for not making a call, Kalamazoo’s Eric Kattelus picked up a loose puck at the other end and beat Curry with 2:17 left on the clock to push the K-Wings lead to 4-2 after two. Orlando came out with more passion in the third period and it paid dividends right away. Defenseman Michael Wilson stepped up into the play, carrying the puck behind the Kalamazoo net. As he came out the other side, he dropped a perfect back pass off the end boards to Kevin Baker who deflected it into the net off of Martin. The goal cut the K-Wings lead to 4-3 with just over fifteen minutes left in regulation – certainly enough time for the home team to finish the comeback. The most crucial point of the period (and the game) came with less than four minutes left. With Kyle Page already off for delay of game, Kalamazoo’s Armstrong was called for delay of game when he stopped an Orlando flurry by deliberately knocking the net off its pins. The second call meant that the Solar Bears would have 1:38 of two-man advantage time followed by 22 seconds of a one-man advantage. Orlando’s power play units moved the puck around the K-Wings defensive zone looking for the perfect setup but in the process allowed much of the time to run off the clock. They put less than a handful of shots on Martin (29 saves in the game) during the five-on-three and failed to score. After the game, Berehowsky defended his players and the power play which went 2-for-7 in the game, saying that they were working hard to find the best opportunity to score but Kalamazoo kept them from doing it. “When you deal with a lot of skilled guys, they want to get that perfect play. They went out there and moved the puck around well but sometimes you’re not going to score,” he said. “They (Kalamazoo) did a good job killing (off the power play). They stayed in their formation and they were able to succeed at burning out the two minutes.” Berehowsky pulled Curry (33 saves) with 43 seconds remaining, but it was to no avail as the K-Wings held on for the win. It marked the first time in six times that Orlando failed to win after scoring first in a game. The Solar Bears’ attention now turns to a two-game series against Gwinnett, a team that has had Orlando’s number so far this season. The Gladiators and Solar Bears have met four times with Gwinnett winning every time. “We’re going to forget about it (Tuesday’s loss). We’re going to learn from it,” he said. “We’re going to watch video. We’re going to practice the things we have to improve on tomorrow and we’re going to get ready for Gwinnett for the next day.” The Thanksgiving night game in Gwinnett starts at 7:05 p.m. with Friday’s contest dropping the puck at 6:05 p.m. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com  

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