ORLANDO, FL – So far this season, the Orlando Solar Bears had found the going tough when it comes to winning streaks. The Solar Bears had not been able to extend a positive run beyond two games at any point.
Kale Kerbashian (11,right) celebrates his first goal with his Solar Bears teammates Sunday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Sunday afternoon, they finally achieved a three game winning streak thanks in large part to a newcomer.
Kale Kerbashian, who signed with Orlando last Wednesday, scored the game-winner and added an assist in his first game as the Solar Bears (16-16-4-1, 37 points) downed the Jacksonville Icemen (9-19-3-2, 23 points) 3-1 in front of an announced crowd of 6,141 at the Amway Center in Orlando. The victory allowed the Solar Bears to sweep all three games of a weekend triple, giving the squad from Central Florida its first extended streak of the 2017-2018 season.
“It was great. I think the guys battled hard and they stuck to the game plan for the most part but I still think we have more [in us],” Solar Bears head goach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said. “I hope the guys realize that we have more to show.”
Playing for the third time in less than three days with an overnight bus trip, many questioned whether which team would be able to summon up the energy to take control and win. The Solar Bears, playing in front of their fans, took the reigns and controlled most of the first period of play, outshooting the visiting Icemen 13-10 in the stanza.
Orlando did have an opportunity to get a leg up a little shy of four minutes in when while on a power play, Jacksonville’s Garet Hunt became entangled with the Solar Bears Josh Winquist. When the dust settled, Hunt had an extra penalty in his column, giving Orlando an extended two man advantage but the home team failed to capitalize.
The Solar Bears did eventually open the scoring with 5:01 to go in the frame. Gaining control in the Jacksonville end, Martins Dzierkals sent the puck to the blueline where Kerbashian received it and slid it to Alex Gudbranson who ripped a shot that eluded Icemen goalie Colton Phinney for the defenseman’s second goal of the year – both of them coming against Jacksonville in the friendly confines of the Amway Center.
The Icemen, who have had troubles with getting consistant scoiring out of its man advantage sets, utilized a power play to even the score late in the period. Just as an Orlando penalty was ending, defender Dajon Mingo fed the disc to fellow blueliner Christopher Dienes. Dienes drove down the boards to the right of Orlando goalie Cal Heeter and launched a pass to the low slot. The feed found Tyson Fawcett all alone and the forward redirected it into the top corner of the net for his seventh of the year.
Much like the first two games of the weekend, the second period started with a myriad of penalties that bogged down the flow of play. Along the way, the Solar Bears had another two man advantage handed to them and again they failed to capitalize.
Orlando goalie Cal Heeter (30, center) makes one of his 34 saves through some traffic during Sunday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The pivotal moment of the contest came with just shy of nine miniutes to go before the second intermission. Orlando’s Kristian Pospisil was tagged for a double minorfor high sticking, giving the Icemen an opportunity to take control. That was when Kebashian stepped up and made arguably the play of the game. Perfectly reading a passing situation, the veteran forward stepped in and intercepted the puck. With forward momentum in his favor, he quickly split the pointmen and got loose for a clean breakaway. Kerbashian made a couple of stick moves before sliding the puck between Phinney’s legs for a short-handed tally and a 2-1 lead.
It was a big situation where Kerbashian let his instincts take over for not yet being in sync with the penalty killing systems that the Solar Bears use.
“He [one of the coaches] asked me if I knew what I was doing on the PK and I said yeah and then I turned to the guy next to me and asked him what I should do,” Kerbashian said. “I’ve done it before and it’s pretty simple. I just intercepted a pass and luckily I can still skate a little bit so I pulled away from a couple of guys and shot it. It was nice.”
If the Icemen were becoming weary with a short bench, it did not show as Jacksonville outshot Orlando 18-9 in the middle frame. The run-and-gun action of the first two periods gave way to a much tighter defensive style in the third, which allowed the visitors to pin the Solar Bears in their defensive zone on several occasions. As he did throughout the contest, Orlando’s Heeter (34 saves) played big, doing everything to keep the puck out of his net. That even meant using his goalie mask on two occasions to parry away shots that came at him in the closing moments.
Jacksonville pulled Phinney (25 saves) with just over a minute left in regulation. The strategy did not work as Winquist got the puck to Chris LeBlanc who drove into the Icemen end and backhanded it into the empty net for his eighth goal of the season with 42.2 second remaining to put a bow on the win.
Asked after the game about whether the winning streak signified a turning of a corner of sorts for the Solar Bears. He said that he thought that the weekend sweep could be a springboard to bigger and better things.
“That’s the end goal. I hope so. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to tonight but we found a way to get three wins on the weekend so it’s a good start,” LeBlanc said. “Hopefully we can keep it going and string together a few more [wins].”
Notes: Final shots for the game ended up 35-28 in favor of Jacksonville… Neither power play connected in the contest as the Icemen were 0-for-9 while the Solar Bears went 0-for-4… The victory, combined with a loss by Greenville, allowed Orlando to tie the Swamp Rabbits for third place in the South division at 37 points. The Solar Bears and Greenville will meet on Friday this week up in Greenville… Dzierkals (three games), LeBlanc (two games) and Winquist (three games) all extended point streaks in the game… The win was Heeter’s tenth of the season… Orlando is now 6-1-1-0 against Jacksonville with one more meeting set for late March between the two rivals.
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