ORLANDO, FLA – Up until the middle of last week, Orlando Solar Bears rookie forward Martins Dzierkals had never been to the state of Florida, let alone the city of Orlando and its theme parks, warm weather and the inside of the Amway Center. After Tuesday night, it may be safe to say that the native of Ogre, Latvia might have found a new favorite place to be.
Rookie Martins Dzierkals celebrates one of his two goals Tuesday night against Jacksonville (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Dzierkals scored two goals in support of goalie Cal Heeter’s 33-save performance as the Solar Bears (4-8-2-0,10 points) earned their first home win of the year by downing the Jacksonville Icemen (2-9-1-0, 5 points) 4-1 in front of an announced crowd of 4,343. Defenseman Mike Monfredo and forward Jean Dupuy added two assists apiece while Kyle Rankin and J.J. Piccinich each picked up a goal in the third period to put the pesky Icemen away.
“It’s awesome. The weather is great. In Latvia, it’s like winter now and it’s snowing and here it’s super nice,” Dzierkals said about his first few days in Central Florida. “The first thing I noticed was [that] the arena is huge. I love it so much. I think this is one of the best rinks I’ve ever played in.”
Playing off of Sunday’s explosive third period that led to a win in Greenville, the host Solar Bears wanted to take advantage of their new in-state rivals from north Florida. Orlando had beaten Jacksonville 5-4 in overtime on opening night for the expansion Icemen and thought that a similar script could be written. The Icemen had other ideas, coming out in the first period and pinning the Solar Bears in their own defensive zone in stretches, keeping Heeter very busy.
Heeter, who has been steadily been getting back to the form that he showed in going 14-2 last season in Toledo, bought his teammates time to figure out how to beat Jacksonville starting netminder Jamie Phillips. It came in the form of Dzierkals, a slick forward showing his advertised skills to the home fans for the first time. Midway through the first period, he picked off a clearing attempt and swooped down the boards to the left of Phillips. Dzierkals quickly turned a defender and cut toward the net, firing a snap shot that found the space between Phillips’ legs and squirted through for his second goal in as many games and of the season.
“Their defenseman threw the puck around the boards and I picked it up. The first thing [instinct] was to go to the net and just shoot the puck and somehow it went through,” Dzierkals said about the score. “If you go to the net, good things happen.”
Heeter continued to hold off the Icemen, making a big save on Jacksonville captain Garet Hunt when he broke in alone. Jacksonville stuck to head coach Jason Christie’s game plan and finally broke through when with just under two minutes left in the frame. The Icemen successfully killed off a penalty to Tyson Fawcett and when Fawcett came out of the box, he joined in the play by taking a drop pass from Elgin Pearce and getting the puck to Tanner Eberle who beat Heeter to the top corner for his third of the season and a 1-1 tie after one.
Orlando forward Kyle Rankin (19, center) gets congratulations from his teammates after his third period goal (Photo courtesy of Fernanado Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The second period was a defensive struggle as both Heeter and Phillips, who has performed better than his 2-7-1-0 record indicates, went into shutdown mode. Orlando’s best early chance came off the stick of J.C. Campagna who clanged the post behind Phillips. For his part, Heeter kept his cool – save for a high sticking penalty he took when Hunt tried to bother him midway through the stanza – and blanked the Icemen through the entire period.
The lone score of the frame once again came off the stick of Dzierkals. This time he had plenty of help from Dupuy, who outbattled a Jacksonville defender in the corner and sent a perfect backhand pass to his teammate in the face-off circle. Dzierkals saw his open space fast and ripped a perfect shot into the small space between Phillips right (far side) shoulder and the crossbar for his second of the night.
“My linemate Dupuy, he made a great play and all I had to do was just score a goal,” Dzierkals said.
Orlando’s Kyle Rankin (19, white) battles for position in front of Jacksonville goalie Jamie Phillips and a defender (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Heeter was the star of the third period for the Solar Bears. He held the fort during an early barrage by Jacksonville that could have tied the score and later turned away Fawcett who got loose for a point blank attempt. Those two sequences were part of another perfect frame as he stopped nine Icemen shots for his third perfect frame in his last four played.
“You start to get into a good rhythm. It’s been a tough start to the year for the team as a whole so its been tough to find that [rhythm],” Heeter said about his recent hot streak. “It’s only two games and its a long season so [we can’t] get ahead of ourselves. It’s only going to get harder from here so the most important thing is that we continue to work, communicate and compete as a team.”
With Heeter frustrating the Icemen at every turn, the Solar Bears went looking for some insurance. They found it at the 9:33 mark when Rankin drove the net and converted the rebound of a shot from Tyler Thompson, who was playing in his first game after signing Tuesday afternoon. For Rankin, it was his first goal of the season.
Christie pulled Phillips (27 saves) with 2:38 leftin regulation but Jacksonville had a tough time sustaining any pressure in the Orlando end. Piccinich sealed the victory when he took a short pass from Josh Winquist in the neutral zone and put the puck in the empty net with 35.6 seconds remaining.
Orlando head coach Drake Berehowsky, visibly happy with the win and the two-game streak in the right direction, said that he thought there was still room for improvement by his team, especially coming off a three game road trip.
“I don’t think we played as well as we could have. I think we’ve played a lot better games. I think when you come back – I know when you come back from a long road trip – you usually have a little bit of a lull,” Berehowsky said. “Our guys battled through it and showed a lot of character. They showed that they’re willing to pay the price for a win again and we did it.”
Notes: Neither team was successful on the power play as Jacksonville went 0-for-4 while Orlando was 0-for-5… The Icemen outshot the Solar Bears 34-31, the first time that Orlando had been outshot in its last eight games… Monfredo’s two assists allowed him to reach the 150 point level (32 goals, 118 ssists) in his 353rd game as a professional… With his assist on Piccinich’s goal, Winquist ran his consecutive games with an assist streak to seven games, tying Eric Faille’s franchise record set last season. He has three goals and ten assists in those seven contests… The contest was the first of 16 games to be broadcast on ESPN 580 AM in Orlando. The agreement with the station,which is also the long-time flagship station for the NBA’s Orlando Magic, was announced on Monday. RDV Sports, the owner of the Magic as well as the G-League Lakeland Magic, bought the Solar Bearsback in late May… The two teams will head back up to Jacksonville for the back end of the home-and-home set Wednesday night. Game time at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.
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