ORLANDO, FL – Hockey is a game of skill but it is also a game of passion. Controlling that passion and channeling it is what makes good hockey players into great ones. However when things go wrong, that passion can turn into frustration.
Orlando’s Sean Zimmerman (center) is surrounded by Wheeling players during Monday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Monday night at the Amway Center, members of the Orlando Solar Bears coaching staff and players proved just how human they were in reacting to a loss that was particularly tough to swallow.
Led by two goals by Kevin Schulze and 41 saves from goalie Adam Morrison, the Wheeling Nailers (28-20-4-0, 60 points) defeated Orlando 4-1 in front of a subdued crowd of 3,431. Riley Bourbonnais continued his hot scoring for the visitors, picking up a goal and an assist to help the Nailers take two of three games in the weekend set of contests.
Four games into a ten-game long homestand, the Solar Bears (21-23-5-1, 48 points) are still in control of fourth place in the ECHL’s South division but a 1-3 start to the extended stay at home has everyone searching for answers.
“When I look at our game, it’s never what the other team is doing – it’s what we’re not doing. You look at our first game against them [Wheeling on Friday night], we did everything the right way and Sunday we went back to our old ways,” Orlando veteran captain Sean Zimmerman dejectedly said following the game. “It’s a season full of the same thing, the same story over and over. It’s not going to change unless we change. It’s that simple.”
The first thing that the Solar Bears wanted to change was their start. On Sunday, Wheeling hit Orlando with three goals in the first period and went on to win. Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky again emphasized improving the effort in the opening frame and on Monday it seemed to work. Even though the energy on the ice and in the building was muted to an extent, the Solar Bears played an even game with the Nailers. They came out of the period locked in a 0-0 tie and had an 8-7 advantage in shots on net.
The Solar Bears came the closest to scoring in the first. A little more than five minutes in, Joe Perry was able to sneak a shot throught the legs of Morrison. It slowly slid its was toward the goal line and came close to crossing it before a Wheeling defenseman swept it away. After a discussion with the goal judge, referee Andrew Wilk ruled that the puck did not go all the way across, a ruling that two replay angles shown within the building did not dispute.
Wheeling’s Riley Bourbonnais (right) puts a shot on Orlando goalie Cal Heeter during Monday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
If Orlando was feeling like it was in a better position to erase the memories of the loss the day before, its hopes were shattered in the second. Just 3:51 into the middle frame, Bourbonnais took a pass from former Solar Bear Michael Turner and sped into the Orlando defensive end. He split the two defensemen and went in alone, sliding a shot between the legs of Orlando goalie Cal Heeter for his 17th goal of the season and his third in two days.
Three minutes and nine seconds later, the hole the Solar Bears were in got a bit deeper. Bourbonnais was the lynch pin, taking the puck behind the net and threading a pass to the low shot where Schulze was standing all alone. Schulze took the feed a little to Heeter’s left and fired a shot across the goalie’s body into the top corner of the net. For Schulze, it was his seventh of the year.
“We’ve just got to keep working at it and it’s got to get engrained in the guys,” Berehowsky said when asked about eliminating defensive lapses like those in Monday’s game that seem to happen on a frequent basis. “We’ve got to realize that defense wins championships and we have to be better at it.”
Wheeling complete its trio of unanswered goals at the 14:33 mark when Schulze followed the rebound of his own shot and banged it home for his second of the game. Frustrations boiled over at that point as a scrum broke out at the side of the Orlando net, culminating in a fight between Orlando’s Mike Monfredo and the Nailers Jaynen Rissling.
A late Orlando power play in the second period carried over into the third, giving the home team a chance to get back in the game. That advantage failed as did a subsequent one a little over three minutes into the final frame. The second power play however created some pressure that continued on and culminated in Max Novak making a feed to J.J. Piccinich who scored his 13th of the season with a laser from the faceoff circle to Morrison’s right that tickled the twine in the top corner to the goalie’s left.
As time continued to tick away, tempers began to get more and more frayed. At the 7:43 mark during a stoppage, Orlando’s Hunter Fejes skated past the Wheeling bench and faked a move toward the Nailers players, drawing a face wash from Jeremy Beirnes who was straddling the dasherboard. Both players received penalties, which became a recurrent theme when soon after, Solar Bears veteran forward Darryl Bootland was called for diving after being shoved by the Nailers Garrett Meurs.
Berehowsky pulled Heeter (18 saves) with a little under three minutes to go in regulation. Even that plan failed when a pass attempt in the neutral zone bounded off a shin pad right to Wheeling’s Cody Wydo who buried it in the empty net for his 22nd and the final nail in the Solar Bears coffin.
Orlando goalie Cal Heeter (right) battles for position with Wheeling’s Garrett Meurs during Monday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
One last display of frustration broke out with 44.6 seconds remaining when Zimmerman dropped Wheeling’s Cam Brown to the ice. As Brown got up, he slashed Zimmerman – a move that drew the attention of the Solar Bears Kyle Rankin. Brown, Rankin and Zimmerman all received ten minute misconducts and were sent to the showers, as was Berehowsky who earned himself an minor and a misconduct from the bench.
Piccinich, who had three goals in three games against the Nailers, said that his personal success was nice but that the team’s failure to defend its home ice was of much more concern.
“I’m happy to have personal success but what’s more important is the team’s success. As a player, you do what you can to contribute,” Piccinich said. “We’re all trying to do that so yeah, it’s great [to have] personal successes lately but at the end of the day it’s about the team’s success.”
Asked about what could be done to right the ship, Zimmerman – who was brought in to be a leader both on and off the ice – was at a loss as to what direction to turn in.
“It’s all been said – by the coaching staff, by us in the locker room. That’s the most frustrating part. We know what we have to do and we still revert back to making turnovers and not being intense enough,” Zimmerman said. “It’s all been said. I came in after the second period and I hate coming into the locker room being [ticked] off. I don’t know what else has to be done. You can’t say it anymore at this point. It’s February, it’s all been said. We know how to play [but] we choose not to.”
Notes: For the second straight game, Orlando eclipsed the 40-shot mark, outshooting Wheeling 42-22 in the contest… The Solar Bears failed to score on four power play attempts while the Nailers went 0-for-3… Orlando’s Berehowsky is still one win away from passing Vince Williams formost wins by a Solar Bears head coach… The Solar Bears are back on the ice Thursday at 7 p.m. when Worcester visits the Amway Center.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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