NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Teams in the ECHL’s South division spend a lot of time beating each other up, both physically and in the standings. Some teams play better against others while they falter against a couple. For the Orlando Solar Bears, they may just want to redo their schedule to include more contests against the South Carolina Stingrays.
Behind goals from Kale Kerbashian and Max Novak as well as a stellar 41-save performance from goalie Cal Heeter, the visiting Solar Bears (17-17-4-1, 39 points) edged the host Stingrays (22-9-3-1, 48 points) 2-1 in front of an announced crowd of 4,398 at the North Charleston Coliseum. It was Orlando’s fourth straight win over their Palmetto State rivals and, combined with a win by Atlanta over Greenville, pulled the Solar Bears back into a three-way tie for third place in the division.
Coming off a tough loss the night before to the Swamp Rabbits, Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky tinkered with his lineup, inserting Kerbashian and Kristian Pospisil and sitting Todd Skirving and Chris LeBlanc. Orlando also played without All-Star defenseman Nolan Valleau, who was replaced in the lineupby Aleksandr Mikulovich.
The first period of the contest might have had a similar result to Friday’s game in Greenville had it not been for Heeter. Victimized three times in the opening frame 24 hours earlier, the St. Louis, Missouri native netminder was in a zone from the opening puck drop. He robbed the Stingrays Joe Devin on a deflection during an early power play and made back-to-back stops late in the stanza on the way to a perfect 12 save period.
At the other end of the Coliseum ice, South Carolina’s Jeff Jakaitis was just as difficult to solve. He helped the Stingrays kill off a pair of Orlando man advantage opportunities as part of a clean sheet of eight saves to keep the game scoreless into the first intermission.
The first key point of the battle was a long two-man advantage given to the Stingrays late in the first. After killing off a minute at the end of the opening stanza, Heeter and his teammates successfully thwarted the final 30 seconds at the start of the middle frame plus the final time left on the second infraction.
As it does so often, the successful penalty kill turned momentum and the Solar Bears used the energy to jump in front. A little over a minute after getting back to full strength, Orlando defenseman Sam Jardine got the puck to Kerbashian who took it below the goal line in the South Carolina end. Instead of stopping and looking for a pass, Kerbashian circled the net and lifted a shot over Jakaitis’ shoulder for his second goal in as many games played and the contest’s opening tally.
Four minutes later, the Solar Bears found themselves on the power play and converted for the first time in four games. At the 6:28 mark, Hunter Fejes fed the disc to the point where Jardine lined up a low, hard drive that Jakaitis stopped. The rebound kicked out and Novak, who had not lit the goal light since December 29th, buried the rebound for his 12th goal of the season and a 2-0 lead for the visitors.
Penalties once again got Orlando in trouble midway through the frame. After killing off a hooking call to Jean Dupuy, Novak went to the box at the 11:17 mark. Heeter came up big, robbing Steven Whitney with a catching glove stop but was not so lucky a few moments later when Paul Geiger took a feed from Patrick Gaul and threaded a half slap/half snap shot home for a power play tally and his fourth of the year.
The teams played the final seven minutes of the second period to a scoreless standoff thanks to the netminders. Jakaitis rebounded from allowing two goals to finish the stanza with five saves while Heeter stood tall, making 14 saves on the 15 shots the Stingrays fired in his direction.
South Carolina had an opportunity to even things up early in the third when Kerbashian went off for a penalty. During the man advantage, Taylor Cammarata thought he had put the puck across the line before Heeter could grab it. Unfortunately for him and the Stingrays, referee Alex Normandin ruled that a South Carolina player was in the crease illegally, negating the score.
It was the closest the home team came to tying the contest as Heeter played like a brick wall, making a total of 15 saves in the final twenty minutes. More than half of those shots came in the final four minutes as the Stingrays pounded the Orlando netimnder with rubber only to be frustrated at every turn. When the final buzzer sounded, Heeter had his 11th win of the season and the Solar Bears headed into the All-Star break on a good note.
Notes: Final shots in the game were 42-20 in favor of South Carolina including a 30-12 advantage over the final forty minutes of play… Orlando finished 1-for-6 on the power play while South Carolina went 1-for-8… The Stingrays Jakaitis ended the game with 18 saves in suffering the loss… The Solar Bears are now 4-0-0-0 against South Carolina with seven more meetings still on the schedule… While Valleau is in Indy for Monday’s All-Star game, which can be seen live on the NHL Network at 1 p.m. eastern, the rest of the team will be recharging its batteries for a pair of games next weekend against the Florida Everblades on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center.
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