ORLANDO, FLA – In the previous five season, the Orlando Solar Bears had only beaten their in-state rivals, the Florida Everblades, in the teams’ first regular season meeting once. Wednesday night at the Amway Center, the Solar Bears were less than a minute away from duplicating the fete accomplished at the start of the 2014-15 season.
Orlando’s Zach Stepan (34) and Josh Winquist (88) celebrate teammate Chris LeBlanc’s (16) first period goal (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Then the Everblades found a way to snatch that joy and turn it into a painful loss for Central Florida’s favorite hockey-playing sons.
Mitchell Heard’s power play tally tied the score, setting the stage for Michael Kirkpatrick to silence the home team’s fans with the winning goal in overtime as Florida (7-1-0-0, 14 points) stunned Orlando (2-3-1-0, 5 points) 4-3 in front of an announced crowd of 4,033. Jeff King, Nolan Valleau and Chris LeBlanc each scored for the Solar Bears, who saw nine different players pick up a point in the contest.
Kirkpatrick’s winner came on a three-on-one rush during the five minute sudden death period, a screaming shot from the circle to the right of Orlando goalie Cal Heeter that beat the netminder low to the stick side with 2:40 to go in the extra frame.
“I thought it was a great game. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the two points,” Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky said afterwards. “I thought we played hard. We played the right way for most of it [but] when you give chances to a team like that, they bury them.”
Kirkpatrick’s score would not have happened had it not been for Heard’s game-tying tally at the 19:14 mark of the final frame. Thanks to an ill-timed penalty to Solar Bears defenseman Alexandr Mikulovich that was created by a defensive zone mistake, the Everblades were able to even things up when Kirkpatrick set up the burly forward who rammed the puck into the open side of the net.
“It’s painful but it didn’t start with the PK [penalty killing]. It started with a turnover in our zone and then we took a penalty that shouldn’t have happened,” Berehowsky lamented. “When you give teams like that enough opportunities, they’re going to bury them. They have a lot of scoring power, a lot of firepower. We’ve got to manage it a little better.”
The latest renewal of what is arguably the Sunshine State’s best professional rivalry looked to be a one-sided show as the visiting Everblades controlled the flow of play during the first thirteen-plus minutes of the opening stanza. Heeter, playing in his third consecutive game, stood on his head making save after save to keep his team. He was finally beaten at the 13:20 mark when Gus Young’s shot from the point hit some traffic in front and bounced right to Stephen MacAulay who buried the puck in the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Looking for an answer, the Solar Bears got some help from the visitors as Quentin Shore and Clark Seymour took overlapping boarding penalties to give Orlando 1:38 of five-on-three power play time. Things got even nastier when the Everblades Josiah Didier caught Solar Bears forward Jean Dupuy with a high stick, drawing blood and a double minor while Dupuy went straight to the locker room.
With the two-man advantage extended, Orlando took advantage of the gift when Mike Vaskivuo laid a pass back to King who nailed a one-time bomb that beat Florida netminder Callum Booth. The tally was King’s second of the season and second in three games on the current homestand.
Thanks to the Didier infraction, the power play continued and again was successful. This time it was LeBlanc who somehow found the puck in a scramble in front and popped it home for his second of the year. More importantly it gave Orlando a 2-1 lead that it carried into the intermission.
“Any time you can score on specialty teams, it’s always a great thing,” Berehowsky said. “We just want to keep working at it. We want to get better and we want to take advantage of our opportunities.”
The two teams battle tooth and nail through a scoreless second period. After getting just one power play chance in the first, the Everblades had two more in the middle frame but Heeter held the door shut. The best chance for the visitors came on a long stretch pass that sent MacAulay in alone on the Solar Bears netminder. MacAulay’s shot did beat the goalie but it did not beat the iron as it clanged off the post and bounced into the corner.
Orlando’s Jeff King (4, white) celebrates his second goal of the season with Mike Vaskivuo (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Heeter came up with another big effort early in the third, turning away Kirkpatrick from a prone position. He was not so lucky a couple of minutes later when Kyle Neuber, who had been a thorn in the Solar Bears sides all night, found the puck sliding toward him at the point. He skated into the disc and whistled a shot low to the glove side of Heeter for his first of the season and a tie score.
At the other end of the ice, Booth (21 saves) was having a rocking chair kind of period. He did not face a shot until almost the halfway point of the frame but it turned out to be nearly fatal. Orlando forward Joe Perry moved the puck to linemate Chris Crane who in turn sent it out to the point. Valleau, who was working on a three game point streak including a goal in Sunday’s contest against Atlanta, stepped into a slap shot that zipped past Booth to put the home team back in front.
Orlando’s penalty killers came up big when Vaskivuo was called for delay of game at the 13:28 mark of the third. With time running out on the Everblades, a momentary lapse in their defensive zone led to Mikulovich being tagged for a crosscheck which in turn became Heard’s fourth of the year and the Solar Bears third overtime game of the young season.
The three-on-three extra period saw Orlando get caught up trying to push the play, giving Florida a chance for an odd-man counterattack. Using two teammates as decoys, Kirkpartick took the puck to just above the face-off dot before lacing a shot home for the winner.
Winquist, who picked up an assist on LeBlanc’s goal to push his own point-scoring streak to four games, acknowledged that even the smallest of errors can ruin an otherwise well played game.
“I thought we played OK. We’ve got to limit our turnovers. They cost us the game, “Winquist said. “I thought we played sixth-three good minutes but we’ve got to limit those turnovers so that we can pull out the win.”
Heeter, who made 28 saves in the contest, drew praise from Berehowsky who felt that his netminder’s effort allowed Orlando to be in a position to win.
“He played really well. He gave us an opportunity to win,” Berehowsky said. “We’re happy that he’s finding his groove and hopefully he’ll continue to do so.”
Notes: Orlando finished the night 2-for-3 on the power play, the second time in three games the Solar Bears scored twice with the man advantage, while Florida went 1-for-5…The teams will meet again Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Amway Center with the Solar Bears wearing Orlando Magic-themed jerseys for “Orlando Magic Night”.
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