ORLANDO, FLA – Orlando Solar Bears rookie forward Corey Kalk has been a typical rookie during his maiden season as a professional. Through 30 games played, he had four goals and eight assists to his credit for twelve points and 20 penalty minutes to go with a minus-4 rating. By standards, not a stellar campaign but on Friday night at the Amway Center, Kalk came of age with a breakout performance.
And boy was it something to watch.
Kalk netted his first professional hat trick – all of them coming in the second period – and ten of his teammates picked up at least a point as Orlando (26-19-3-0) rambled to a 6-3 victory over the Jacksonville Icemen (25-22-2-2) in front of an announced crowd of 6,726. Mike Monfredo and Alex Schoenborn each delivered a goal and an assist in the effort that allowed the boys from Central Florida to jump back in front of their rivals from the north into third place.
Orlando rookie Corey Kalk (18, front) and teammate Dylan Fitze celebrate one of Kalk’s three second period goals Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“[There aren’t] many times you get bounces like that in a game. I’d probably say the last time was [my] junior year in college [when] I had a hat trick as well,” Kalk, the Thornhill, Ontario native and Dartmouth College product, said about his big night. “It was kinda similar. I got lucky, got a couple of bounces and the puck goes in the net. I hadn’t scored in two months so it was nice to get the monkey off my back and just happy that the team won and just keep on rolling down the stretch here.”
The fact that Kalk nearly doubled his goal output in one period was even more remarkable when one considers that his linemates were Mike Robinson and Monfredo, who because of injuries played up front even though he is a natural defenseman.
“Monfredo was up front last game (against Florida) as well. We moved him up,” Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky said about the position change for the team’s captain. “He came up [to me] and said he could handle it. We needed someone to fill in the spot and we hadn’t been able to find anybody in time. He’s done a great job with it.”
Monfredo proved that he was not kidding about handling the move to forward by scoring the game’s opening goal. It came 8:40 into the opening period after Orlando had already dinged the post twice. The goal-scoring play began with a shot from the blueline by Alex Kuqali that caromed off of Schoenborn who was trying to screen Jacksonville goalie Ken Appleby in front. The puck ended up with Monfredo off to the side of the crease and he calmly whacked it into the open cage for his sixth goal of the season.
“I play a lot over the summer in my dad’s roller rink so I play forward up there just messing around a lot,” Monfredo said when asked why he felt confident enough to ask to fill in. “I just figured it would be a little bit easier of a transition.”
Orlando captain Mike Monfredo (left) celebrates his first period goal as Alex Schoenborn (36, white) looks on (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Monfredo’s tally was the only score of the first period despite the teams combining for 17 shots on net in the opening twenty. Each side had plenty of chances but the two netminders – Orlando’s Martin Ouellette and the Icemen’s Appleby – stood tall for almost all of the frame.
The Solar Bears, specifically Kalk, went nuts in the middle stanza. The rookie netted his first of the period and fifth of the season 4:14 in when after getting a clean faceoff win back to Matthew Spencer, Kalk went to the net front. He was in the perfect place for Spencer’s shot to hit his stick and sail past Appleby to make it 2-0.
Six and a half minutes later, Kalk caught a break for his second of the night. Some good cycling work along the boards ended up with Robinson putting the puck on Kalk’s stick. He curled into the faceoff circle to Appleby’s right and fired away. The shot went high over the goalie’s right shoulder and just under the crossbar for his sixth and a seemingly commanding three goal lead for the home team.
“[We had a] great chip in and forecheck. We changed the point of attack behind the net, east to west like we talk about in our game plan and just try to get shots on net, throw pucks on net,” Kalk said about the second goal. “Again [I] got a lucky bounce. It hit the goalie’s shoulder and went into the top corner.”
After Jacksonville’s Garrett Ladd got the Icemen on the board with a turnaround shot from the slot that surprised Ouellette for Ladd’s ninth of the year, Kalk went back to work in the final minute of the period.
The rookie’s hat trick tally showed skill and thinking. Getting the puck along the goal line to the right of the net, Kalk saw Monfredo on the back side of the crease and began making a beeline in that direction. He got all the way to the blue paint before faking a pass and sliding the puck between Appleby’s legs with 27.5 ticks to go before the intermission.
“The game happens so fast [that] you’ve just got to react,” Kalk said. “I just kind of reacted to it [open space] and stayed patient and found the hole.”
Down 4-1 heading into the third period, Jacksonville tried its hardest to get back into the contest. Veteran Wacey Rabbit pulled the Icemen within 4-2 at the 7:01 mark of the final frame when he redirected a pass from Justin Woods past Ouellette who was playing for a shot. The score was Rabbit’s 19th of the season.
Orlando goalie Martin Ouellette (center) makes a save in traffic, one of 28 stops he made in Friday’s win (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Orlando answered back at 13:16 when Mathieu Foget slipped a pass to Trevor Olson on the back door and the rookie forward banged it home for his eighth of the year. The Icemen again cut the margin to two goals when Everett Clark netted his seventh of the season on a backhander that ramped up Ouellette’s stickblade and in to make it 5-3 with 4:04 to go in regulation.
Jacksonville head coach Jason Christie pulled goalie Tanner Jaillet, who had replaced Appleby (19 saves) at the start of the third, with a little over three minutes left. The Solar Bears took a number of shots at the empty net but failed to score. Finally, Schoenborn put the game away at 18:39 when he took a pass from newly signed Jackson Playfair and tucked a shot inside the goal post for his sixth of the season. For Playfair, the son of former NHL player and coach Jim Playfair and nephew of former NHLer Larry Playfair, it was his first professional assist coming in his very first pro game.
Coming off a bad loss on Wednesday to Florida, Berehowsky was pleased with how his team bounced back.
“I thought we came out with a better start tonight. We stuck to our structure,” Berehowsky said about the difference between Wednesday’s and Friday’s effort. “I think in Estero, that was a one-off where you’re going to have those games throughout the year. We’ve got to learn from it and rebound and the guys rebounded tonight from it.”
Orlando’s Tayler Thompson (white) sets a screen in front of Jakcsonville goalie Ken Appleby during Friday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Monfredo agreed with Berehowsky’s assessment, noting that doing things by the book as the coaching staff asks usually produces success.
“We just stuck to the game plan. We did everything we were supposed to do – chip pucks, not get fancy and do one-on-one stuff, got it deep, got the pucks and bodies to the net and created the opportunities for ourselves,” Monfredo said.
As for Kalk, he said that Friday’s performance was more proof that if the Solar Bears play their game and execute the game plan, Orlando will be a team to reckon with through the rest of the season and hopefully the playoffs.
“That’s kind of what we said after the game. If we play our game, it doesn’t matter who we have in the lineup, not many teams can beat us when we dominate,” Kalk said. “Every day is a new day and you can’t get too high, can’t get too low. I think we came off the three game sweep against Jacksonville and went into Florida a little lack luster. Sure we’re down guys and you can make all the excuses in the world but at the end of the day you’ve got to play a full sixty minutes every night. If we do that, I think we can dominate any team in this league.”
Notes: Final shots were 31-30 in favor of Jacksonville… Each team went 0-for-2 on the power play… With his second period hat trick, Kalk matched the franchise mark for most goals by a single player in a single period. He now shared the record with Mickey Lang who accomplished the fete on March 27, 2014 against Evansville – the franchise that relocated to Jacksonville and became the Icemen… Robinson’s two assists on Kalk’s second and third goals were his first two career assists… After an off-day on Saturday, Orlando will host Manchester on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at the Amway Center.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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