NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – No matter when a game between rivals falls during the regular season, how the game is played can be considered a statement by whichever squad comes out on top. That was what both the Orlando Solar Bears and South Carolina Stingrays hoped to accomplish Saturday night when they met in the final game of the 2017-18 ECHL regular season. At stake: a psychological advantage when they meet in the first round of the Kelly Cup playoffs that begin next week.
Based on the way the game was played, the series could be one of the best in the early stages of the post-season. As for who might have an edge in the mental game, that could be left for debate.
Paul Geiger scored his 12th goal of the season with 1:25 left in regulation to lift the host Stingrays (48-16-7-1, 104 points) to a 2-1 victory over the Solar Bears (33-30-6-3, 75 points) in front of an announced crowd of 6,570 at the North Charleston Coliseum. South Carolina goalie Jeff Jakaitis outdueled Orlando netminder Cal Heeter in a preview of what could be an outstanding defensive series,the first post-season battle between the two South division rivals.
Having won the last six meetings between the teams, the Stingrays were in the mood to inflict more mental damage with a side of physical intimidation on the visitors from Central Florida. South Carolina came out hard, putting Heeter to the test with several early shots on net. The hosts also took the body when they could, as Evan Fiala exhibited when he hit Solar Bears forward up high, drawing a penalty which his teammates easily killed off.
Just past the midpoint of the opening period, the Stingrays got on the board first. Dylan Margonari took control of the puck down low in the Orlando end and put a pass out front of the net. It hit Jake Kamrass who then fed the puck to Jonathan Carbonneau who beat Heeter for his fifth goal of the season.
That was all the scoring in the first frame as Jakaitis, who finished the night with 28 saves, stopped all ten Solar Bears attempts in the stanza while Heeter ended up with ten stops as well on the eleven shots he faced.
Orlando, which had scored just seven goals in the last six meetings with South Carolina, had a golden opportunity to even things up early in the middle frame. A double minor to Margonari and a penalty to Fiala gave the Solar Bears about a minute of five-on-three power play time sandwiched by four-on-three and standard five-on-four advantages. The Stingrays, who boast the best penalty killing units in the league, were able to sail through the disadvantages with flying colors.
At the other end, Heeter, who would record 34 saves in the contest, was back in the groove he had been in over the past few weeks. During a Solar Bears power play midway through the period, he was called on to deny a clean breakaway by Tad Kozun.
With Heeter keeping his team within striking distance, it was up to the Orlando offense to support its netminder. Late in the stanza, the Solar Bears found themselves with a power play and they made the Stingrays pay. With Charbonneau in the box, newcomer Curtis Miske sent Max Novak and Kristian Pospisil away on an odd-man rush. Using Pospisil as a decoy heading to the net, Novak fooled Jakaitis by putting the disc between the goalie’s legs for his 21st goal of the season and a tie heading to the third. For Miske, it was his first professional point in just his second game.
The Solar Bears faced two South Carolina power plays early in the final frame but with Heeter on his game, the penalty kills came fairly easily. Jakaitis came up with maybe the biggest save of the period when he stoned Orlando’s Chris LeBlanc on a break-in.
Joe Devin nearly put the Stingrays ahead with a little over two minutes left in regulation when he beat Heeter but his shot rang off the crossbar. Less than a minute later, Patrick Gaul won an offensive zone faceoff and got the puck to Nick Roberto. Roberto found Geiger in the right circle and he did the rest, getting the puck to his forehand and using a screen in front, beat Heeter to the sitck side for what proved to be the game winner.
The Solar Bears pulled Heeter with just over a minute to go but it failed to provide the desired result as Jakaitis and the Stingrays hung on for the win.
South Carolina finished the season series with a 7-3-0-1 record against Orlando but all of that will be wiped away when the Stingrays and Solar Bears line up for game one next Thursday back in North Charleston.
Notes: South Carolina outshot Orlando 36-29 in the contest… The Solar Bears went 1-for-6 on the power play while the Stingrays came up empty in four attempts… Novak’s power play goal was his 23rd man advantage point, giving his the ECHL franchise record for most power play points in a single season. Teammate Josh Winquist, who sat out Saturday’s game, ended up one back at 22 man advantage points… After winning the first four meetings of the season and out scoring the Stingrays 12-7, the Solar Bears lost the final seven head-to-head battles,going 0-5-0-2 while being outscored 25-8… Forward Tayler Thompson was activated off of the injured reserve list and played for the Solar Bears on Saturday.
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