JACKSONVILLE, FLA – The Orlando Solar Bears headed into Tuesday night’s first game on a ten-game road trip on a high after beating South Carolina twice as part of a four wins in five games streak. All that stood between them and a three-game winning streak was the Jacksonville Icemen, a team the Solar Bears had already beaten twice in three meetings.
Michael Turner (23, left) celebrates one of the Solar Bears second period goals in Tuesday’s game (PHN Photo by Trina Kirk)
There was one thing that the Solar Bears probably did not count on: the scoring prowess of one Emerson Clark.
Clark netted the first hat trick in the young history of the Icemen and backup goalie Colton Phinney, pressed into duty with Jamie Phillips recalled to Manitoba, recorded his second win in a week as Jacksonville (4-11-1-0, 9 points) turned back Orlando (6-9-3-0, 15 points) 6-4 in front of an announced crowd of 2,676 at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. Both of Phinney’s victories have come at the expense of the Solar Bears.
The loss spoiled a solid return to the lineup for Orlando’s Chris LeBlanc, sidelined since November 7th, who had a goal and an assist in the contest. Nolan Valleau and Max Novak also had multi-point games as each notched a pair of assists.
Despite the fact that Jacksonville had just three wins heading into the matchup, the Icemen were certainly no pushovers as exhibited last Wednesday when they beat Orlando in overtime. Tuesday night, it was Jacksonville’s special teams that shined bright in the first period as the Icemen picked up a short-handed tally and a pair of power play scores in a three-goal opening frame.
The penalty killers got the first chance of the night to excite the crowd and the fans were more than pleased with the effort. With Tyson Fawcett in the box, the Icemen capitalized on a Solar Bears miscue to crack the scoresheet first. It came when a misplay of the puck by Orlando’s Josh Winquist became a steal bu Dylan Blujus. Blujus fed Tyler Coulter who in turn sent Everett Clark away on a clean breakaway. Clark drove in on Solar Bears netminder Cal Heeter and beat him cleanly for his second goal of the season and the Icemen’s third short-handed score of the year.
Late in the frame, Orlando created problems for itself when overlapping penalties to Jeff King and Winquist set Jacksonville’s power play up with over a minute of five-on-three advantage time. It took just 24 seconds for the Icemen to convert when Blujus laid into a slap shot from the point that zipped its way over Heeter’s shoulder and under the crossbar, causing the water bottle on top of the net to bounce. The score was Blujus’ first of the 2017-18 campaign.
Still working on Winquist’s infraction in the final minute, Fawcett got the puck to Brendan Collier who went on a skate through the neutral zone into the Solar Bears defensive end. He raced to the left circle and ripped a shot past Heeter just before Winquist stepped out of the penalty box for his first of the season with 25.6 seconds left in the period.
Down by three heading into the second period, Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky changed things up, sending Mackenzie Skapski out between the pipes and giving Heeter the rest of the night off. It looked like a solid move when Skapski stoned Ryan Graham on a short-handed breakaway three minutes into the stanza.
Given a reprieve by their goalie, the Solar Bears began a comeback. At the 4:12 mark, LeBlanc followed a shot by Dupuy to the crease. Once there he was able to somehow poke it past Phinney. There was a question as to whether Phinney had the puck tied up but after consulting with the goal judge, it was ruled a good goal and LeBlanc’s third of the season.
Jacksonville’s Emerson Clark (13, center) earned the Icemen’s first ever hat trick Tuesday night (PHN Photo by Trina Kirk)
A little over two minutes later, Orlando pulled closer when Michael Turner, playing in just his second game since coming off the injured reserved list, redirected a feed from Novak into the net for his first of the season to make it 3-2.
It took Jacksonville just 58 seconds to come up with a response. This time it was Emerson Clark who after taking a feed from Dajon Mingo, danced around a stickless King and fired a shot between Skapski’s legs for his fifth of the year.
Orlando still had a bit more in it and netted a third goal before the period was over. Playing with the power play, the Solar Bears worked the puck around until it found Winquist who was playing the point on the man advantage team. He wound up and drilled a shot that beat Phinney for his sixth goal of the season, pulling the visitors within 4-3.
Jacksonville had one more golden opportunity to bump the lead up when a second set of overlapping infractions called on the Solar Bears (LeBlanc and Winquist) gave the home team 1:36 of five-on-three time. Orlando dug in its heels and smartly killed off both ends of the situation to keep the deficit at one heading into the break.
The Icemen quickly put a kink in the Solar Bears thoughts of another fantastic finish early in the third. Just a minute and 13 seconds in, Alexandre Goulet put a shot on net that Skapski stopped. The rebound came out to Emerson Clark who deftly avoided a poke check attempt by the goalie and tucked it into the open side of the net for his second of the night and sixth of the year.
From that point on, the game was a duel between the netminders and their teammates on defense. Both Skapski (18 saves in relief) and Phinney (21 saves) were up to the few challenges put in front of them as the defenses tigntened up. Late in the game, Berehowsky pulled Skapski for an extra attacker but Clark foiled the plan by hitting the open net with 2:31 to go in regulation to complete the hat trick.
Fighting to the end, the Solar Bears got one final score when J.C. Campagna took a feed from J.J. Piccinich and popped home his fifth goal of the season with 40.9 seconds remaining to finish off the scoring.
Notes: Jacksonville outshot Orlando by a count of 31-25 in the game. It was the third straight meeting that saw the Icemen outshoot the Solar Bears… Orlando’s power play finished 1-for-4 on the power play while Jacksonville went 2-for-5… Phinney now has half of Jacksonville’s win so far this season… The three-goal second period by Orlando was its third individual frame with three or more scores. They are 1-2 in those contests… With Phillips recalled by Manitoba and forward Bobby MacIntyre recalled by AHL Cleveland on Monday, Jacksonville signed goalie Alex Sakellaropoulos and defenseman Chris Jospeh to SPCs (standard player contracts) that day. Sakellaropoulos backed up Phinney while Joseph did not dress for Tuesday’s game… To make room for LeBlanc in the lineup, Orlando put forward Marcus Basara on reserve… Jacksonville will continue its homestand Thursday when the Norfolk Admirals visit the River City for the first time… Orlando will head to Greenville, SC to face the Swamp Rabbits on Friday in the first of a three-games-in-three days weekend that will take them from Greenville, to North Charleston (South Carolina Stingrays) on Saturday and finally to Duluth, GA to take on the Atlanta Gladiators on Sunday afternoon.
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