MAITLAND, FLA – When ninteenth-century French writer Alexandre Dumas penned his literary classic “The Three Musketeers”, he gave the main characters – Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d’Artagnan – the motto “one for all [and] all for one, united we stand divided we fall”. It was the cornerstone by which the group conducted their affairs based on a fierce loyalty to one another.
Little did Dumas know that more than a century later, that motto would be applicable to athletic teams far and wide, in particular the Orlando Solar Bears.
Last week, the Solar Bears finished off a four-game sweep of the South Carolina in the South division semifinals of the 2018 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs with a total team effort that included eshewing the tradition of individual players coming onto the ice during pre-game introductions. Instead they came out as a group, showing a unity that they will need to draw on again when they face the Florida Everblades in the division finals starting Friday night in Estero.
“I think it’s great. This team’s pulled together [during] the second half [of the season]. You can see it in the room, on the bus, on the road,” Orlando head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky beamed when asked about the change in protocol. “The guys are really working for each other, supporting each other and having fun while working hard out in practice. I just think the real competition has been great and they’ve come together at the right time.”
Heading into the series with the Stingrays as the lower seed, Orlando put on a defensive show that quickly turned them from being underdogs into favorites. With Cal Heeter putting on a resume-exploding performance (149 saves on 152 shots faced / .980 save percentage / 0.66 goals against average), the defense upped their game to meet their netminder’s resolve and shut down a solid South Carolina offense. Most notably was blueliner Alex Gudbranson who helped Heeter out by making key plays in both games two and three to deny the Stingrays goals that could have helped the second-seeded Stingrays turn the tide.
Offensively, the Solar Bears did just enough to win, scoring two goals in each game. Hunter Fejes took a starring role with a pair of short-handed game winning tallies including the overtime winner in game three. J.J. Piccinich also netted a pair of goals while Max Novak and Sam Jardine picked up power play scores and Jean Dupuy netted the goal heard around Central Florida – the overtime winner to send the Stingrays into the off-season. Veteran Joe Perry also got into the goal column in game three.
“I think we really played committed hockey in the first round. We’ve got to carry that over into the second round,” Dupuy said on Tuesday. “Florida’s a good team. They were first place in the conference for a reason.”
The Solar Bears dislike for the Stingrays was nothing compared to the utter hatred they have for the Everblades – and with reason. The two Florida-based teams have been bitter rivals since Orlando joined the ECHL in 2012 and the level with which each one despises the other has grown with each passing season.
“Ugly. It’s always a dirty game out there. I don’t know why but it always just gets sloppy bad out there,” Heeter said when asked to describe the Florida-Orlando rivalry.
Post-season meetings have not lessened the animosity. Florida has won each of the two playoff series between the teams with last year’s being particularly agonizing for Orlando. After building up a three games to one lead, the Solar Bears saw what could have been a first ever playoff victory snatched away by the Everblades in seven games.
During the 2017-18 regular season, Florida once again took home the Wawa Sunshine Cup as winners of the in-season battle. The Solar Bears mustered just four wins against the Everblades in 14 meetings with two coming at home and two happening at Germain Arena in Estero. Florida outscored Orlando 50-36 in the regular season but if you check the power play numbers, the Solar Bears connected on 20.3 percent of their chances (15-for-74) while the Everblades hit for 14.9 percent (10-for-67) in the contests.
Leading the way for the Everblades during the regular season was Stephen MacAulay. MacAulay posted seven goals and ten assists against Orlando. He along with Mitchell Heard (5 goals, 10 assists), John McCarron (5 goals, 6 assists) and Michael Kirkpatrick (2 goals, 8 assists) led a balanced scoring attack against their rivals from Central Florida. Goalie Martin Ouellette earned eight of the ten Florida wins in net while putting up a 1.82 goals against average and a .939 save percentage.
Novak was the leading scorer for the Solar Bears against Florida, notching four goals and ten assists while Fejes had three goals and four assists. Heeter won two of the four meetings he had with the Everblades.
Florida dispatched the Atlanta Gladiators in a four-game sweep in the first round with Kirkpatrick doing a lot of the damage with four goals and three assists for the Everblades. Ouellette continuted his strong play with three wins while allowing just five goals total.
In a side-by-side comparison of the two teams in the first round, the Everblades scored 14 goals against Atlanta to the Solar Bears 8 against the best defense in the ECHL during the regular season in South Carolina. Both teams scored twice on the power play but Orlando’s perfect 18-for-18 penalty killing performance with two short-handed goals by Fejes stands out, even up against Florida killing off 16 of 18 man advantage chances by the Gladiators with one short-handed tally.
A lot of the pressure in the series will fall on Heeter. Asked about what he thinks the key to the Solar Bears winning, he pointed at one thing: repeating the performance from round one.
“We need to stick to the same structure, same work ethic, same intensity, same execution,” Heeter said. “If we keep all of those things going, I think it should be a good series.”
Dupuy agreed, saying that focusing on the little details like they did during the regular season and in the first round is important.
“We’ve had a tough time with them this year but most of the games have gone the distance,” Dupuy said. “I think with the practices this week and just the focus, the commitment we had in the first round will carry over to the second round.”
Veteran defenseman Sean Zimmerman, who won the Kelly Cup with Colorado last season, expects the series to be full of emotion, which is just the way he likes it.
“I’ve enjoyed playing them all year. I think it’s going to be a pretty emotional series – a lot of energy, a lot of passion,” he said. “That’s my style of hockey so I’m excited and I can’t wait for it to be Friday already.”
Series Schedule: Game 1: Friday, April 27 – 7:30 pm at Germain Arena/Estero; Game : Saturday, April 28 – 7 pm at Germain Arena/Estero; Game 3: Thursday May 3 – 7 pm at Amway Center/Orlando; Game 4: Friday May 4 – 7 pm at Amway Center/Orlando; *Game 5: Sunday May 6 – 1:30 pm at Amway Center/Orlando; *Game 6: Tuesday May 8 – 7 pm at Germain Arena/Estero; *Game 7: Wednesday May 9 – 7 pm at Germain Arena/Estero (* denotes if necessary)
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