ORLANDO, FL – With six minutes gone in the third period of Wednesday night’s game against South Carolina, the Orlando Solar Bears found themselves with a two goal lead and looking like they were in control and about to win their second straight contest. Hockey, however, is a sixty minute game and all it took was twelve seconds for the Stingrays to turn a potential defeat into the franchise’s 1,000th all-time win.
Orlando forward J.J. Piccinich (14, right) battles with South Carolina’s Evan Fiala during Wednesday night’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Goals by Paul Geiger and rookie Jake Kamrass midway through the third period set the stage for Steven Whitney to be the hero for the second consecutive game as South Carolina (41-15-6-1, 89 points) slipped past Orlando (31-27-6-1,70 points) 3-2 in a shootout in front of an announced crowd of 4,392 at the Amway Center. The win was the Stingrays fourth straight over the Solar Bears after Orlando took the first four in the season series.
Veteran Joe Perry and rookie J.J. Piccinich had staked Orlando to its two-goal margin and the Solar Bears defense, particularly goalie Mackenzie Skapski, appeared to have the contest well under control. Then things turned in the other direction as the visitors turned a four-on-four situation into two quick tallies that left both the Solar Bears and their fans stunned.
“It was the toughest stretch of the game for us. I thought we maybe fell into a bit of a lull there,” Perry said about the fateful stretch in the final frame. “That’s something we’ve got to work on too is not getting down at points like that  because there were six, seven minutes left in the game (in actuality there were ten minutes) and one goal wins it again for us. Obviously it was unfortunate to give up two quick ones like that but we’ve got to stay on it.”
Looking to carry the momentum from a win over Florida on Saturday, the Solar Bears may have thought they were catching South Carolina in a tired state as the Stingrays had come from Duluth, Georgia and a shootout win on Monday over Atlanta. The optics of  the situation became even more focused when Perry meandered into the South Carolina defensive zone and using a defenseman as a screen, rocketed a wrist shot from up top past a startled Parker Milner, the Stingrays’ netminder, just 54 seconds into the contest.
“That’s a shot I work on, putting it through the guy’s skates. It’s hard for the goalie to pick up because he can’t see where I release it,” Perry said about his 14th goal of the year. “Luckily it kind of got off clean [and] I got quite a bit of wood behind it.”
Orlando’s Joe Perry netted his 14th goal of the season in Wednesday’s contest (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Perry’s tally was the only one recorded during the firts forty minutes of action. The biggest reasons for that were the two goalies – Skapski and Milner. Skapski maintained a clean sheet for two periods by making 10 saves, the best coming in the opening frame when he turned away Nick Roberto on a partial breakaway as the Stingrays forward was being hounded from behind by Orlando forward Josh Winquist. Winquist received a slashing penalty on the play but his teammates easily killed off the South Carolina power play.
Down the other end, Milner recovered nicely from allowing a goal on the first shot to record 13 saves. He too had to face a break-in, this one by Solar Bears forward Max Novak, but the Pittsburgh, PA native was equal to the task.
Shortly after killing off a penalty to Kale Kerbashian early in the third, the Solar Bears extended their lead to two. It came when Piccinich was in the right place to redirect a shot from the point by Nolan Valleau – who had just returned to Orlando from the AHL’s Rockford Ice Hogs earlier in the day – into the back of the net for his 17th of the season.
“Adam Phillips and Nolan Valleau, they made a nice D-to-D pass. Valleau spread it and he saw me there and was shooting for the tip. Â He knew I wanted to tip it,” Piccinich said as he described his goal. “He basically shot it wide and I kind of just redirected it in. I was fortunate for that to happen. I kind of thought it would be enough tonight but it wasn’t.”
Less than ninety seconds later, the game took a turn when Solar Bears captain Sean Zimmerman and the Stingrays’ Marcus Perrier tangled with each picking up a roughing minor. The four-on-four situation led to more open ice and South Carolina took advantage when a two-on-one break turned into Kamrass dragged the puck around a sliding defender and fed Geiger who netted his ninth of the season.
Seconds later, Joey Leach carried the puck down the boards to the goalie’s right and saw Kamrass busting for the net. Leach fired the disc in the direction of the cage where it hit the rookie out of UMass-Lowell and bounced in for his first professional goal.
South Carolina’s Joe Devin (right) tries to tuck a shot past Orlando goalie Mackenzie Skapski during Wednesday night’s contest (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
“From what I saw of the second one, it was a pretty crazy bounce,” Piccinich said about the Kamrass goal that eventually sent the game to overtime. “I think the lesson learned is just to not turn it over. They countered pretty well against us every time we turned it over and when we did it we were all over them.”
For Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky, at least one of the goals given up he thought was due to his players overcommitting.
“I have to go back and look at it. I think we dove in on one play and we should know better than to dive in on plays. We don’t do that,” he said. “We angle and we receive the rush. We don’t dive in.”
The overtime period was again dominated by the Solar Bears. They put five shots on Milner (24 saves) during the extra frame while Skapski (19 saves) faced just two. It was the final shot that each netminder faced that had the crowd on its feet as Skapski stoned Roberto with just under ten seconds left before Milner did the same to Hunter Fejes with two ticks to go.
In the shootout, Kelly Zajac put South Carolina up in round one by going five-hole after a faked shot. That was equaled in round two by Orlando’s Martins Dzierkals who made a similar move to beat Milner. In the final round, Milner turned away Piccinich before Whitney went low to the glove side on Skapski to win it.
Berehowsky said afterwards that he was happy that his team picked up a point in the standings but that the effort needs to pick up, especially when it comes to using the talents the Solar Bears have.
“I am thankful for the point but to me, when we’re playing at our best, we’re a lot better than that. Tonight we didn’t show what we have,” Berehowsky said. “I don’t think we generated enough. I don’t think we attacked their lines with speed. One of our biggest assets is our speed and we didn’t use it tonight.”
Notes: Final shots favored Orlando 26-22… Both teams failed  to connect on the power play as South Carolina went 0-for-4 while Orlando went 0-for-5… Perry,  Kerbashian and Piccinich all exiteded point streaks to two games… With the point earned for the shootout loss, the Solar Bears magic number to clinch a playoff spot was reduced to four while their magic number to secure the third seed in the divisional playoffs dropped to six… The Stingrays and Solar Bears will meet again Friday night at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at the Amway Center. They will finish the regular season against each other on Saturday, April 7th in North Charleston.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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