ORLANDO, FL – Fresh off of earning a playoff spot Saturday night when Greenville defeated Jacksonville, the Orlando Solar Bears set to business on Sunday looking for a bit of revenge and to get back in the win column against the South Carolina Stingrays. After two straight shootout losses against their South division rival, the Solar Bears wanted to set a tone but the effort ended up being quite flat.
Orlando defenseman Sean Zimmerman scored his first goal of the season Sunday afternoon (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Led by rookies J.C. Brassard and Jonathan Charbonneau and a strong effort from the power play, the visiting Stingrays (43-15-6-1,93 points) beat Orlando (31-28-6-3, 71 points) 4-1 in front of an announced crowd of 5,823 at the Amway Center. Solar Bears captain Sean Zimmerman scored his first goal of the season to break up the shutout bid by South Carolina netminder Parker Milner, who made 19 saves to post his third straight against Orlando in five days and fifth overall dating back to late January.
“I didn’t like the way we played tonight. We didn’t have the jump and we’ve got to figure out what’s going on now,” Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said following his team’s sixth straight loss to the Stingrays. “We’ll go back to the drawing board, we’ll watch some video and go back and start preparing again.”
It sure looked like the Solar Bears were ready to get back in the win column early in the first period. Orlando opened with the first five shots of the game on Milner, who turned every one of them away. It took South Carolina almost half of the frame to register a shot on Solar Bears goalie Mackenzie Skapski, who took care of the first three Stingrays attempts.
The fourth South Carolina shot became the start of a long afternoon for the home team. At the 12:58 mark, Steven Whitney grabbed the puck behind the Orlando net and saw teammate Paul Geiger sneaking in from the point. Geiger found an open spot and one-timed Whitney’s perfect pass into the back of the net for his 10th goal of the season.
Late in the period, Solar Bears forward Kristian Pospisil took a penalty and it turned into gold for the visitors. With less than a minute left in the stanza, Whitney was again in his office below the goal line. This time it was Brassard who found the soft spot in the orlando defense and using a screen, the Union College standout rifled a shot past Skapski for his first professional goal and point to give the Stingrays a 2-0 lead after one.
“Today we lost some coverages. We weren’t paying attention to the details,” Berehowsky said. “I thought the other two games (Wednesday and Friday) we identified and we were able to not give up the chances we did today.”
Orlando’s Robbie Baillargeon (right) battles with South Carolina’s J.C. Brassard during Sunday’s game (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
At the start of the second, the Solar Bears again controlled the shot clock, building a 5-2 advantage as the time clock hit the midpoint of the contest. That was when another penalty, this one to Jean Dupuy, cost Orlando. This time the play really began when Charbonneau, who played his college hockey at Mercyhurst University, locked up in the corner with an Orlando defender who lost his helmet. As the Solar Bears player tried to scamper back to the bench to avoid a second infraction, it left Charbonneau all alone to fire a short side shot home for his first pro goal and point in just his second game.
While all that was going on, Milner was rock solid at the other end, taking care of everything Orlando threw at him. His best save of the middle frame came when Pospisil used his speed to get loose for a break in but the Boston College product stood tall and shut the chance down.
The Solar Bears did have an opportunity to trim the lead when a pair of overlapping penalties to South Carolina’s Evan Fiala and Marcus Perrier gave Orlando a short five-on-three man advantage. The Stingrays were able to fend off the disadvantage and carried a 3-0 lead to the final twenty minutes.
Needing a boost, Orlando appeared to get it when its penalty killers successfully held off the Stingrays when Joe Perry took a double minor for high sticking. It seemed to work when 38 seconds after Perry left the box, Martins Dzierkals set up Zimmerman who used a huge screen by Perry in front to beat Milner for his first goal in a Solar Bears uniform.
“Dzerks passed it to me. It was kind of a rolling puck so I was kind of worried about it hopping over my stick,” the veteran defenseman said. “Once I knew I had it, I didn’t even look. I just shot it and it ended up going in. Joe [Perry] had a good screen in front.”
Not wanting to let Orlando back in the contest, South Carolina started to push the tempo. The Stingrays pounded Skapski (25 saves) with a number of shots but the Abbortsford, BC native continually frustrated the visitors, giving his team a chance.
The Stingrays put the final nail in the coffin with their third power play goal of the afternoon. On this one, Kelly Zajac played the role that Whitney had filled earlier, making a pretty cross-crease pass to Charbonneau who whacked a one-timer into the open side of the net for his second of the game.
Solar Bears goalie Mackenzie Skapski (center) looks for the puck while teammate Sam Jardine (21, black) fights for position with Steven Whitney during Sunday’s contest (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
The Solar Bears could not find a way to beat Milner the rest of the way as he and the Stingrays headed to the bus with a trio of wins on the road against their probable first round playoff opponent.
Zimmerman, who was a part of last spring’s run by the Colorado Eagles to the ECHL Kelly Cup championship over Milner and his South Carolina teammates, said that with four games left in the regular season, the time is now to start getting that playoffs mentality.
“It’s [playoff mentality] not a swithch that you just flip on like it’s playoff time and it’s ‘oh, we’ve got to go [and play hard]’. It starts now,” he said. “That preparation is everything. We’re not sure who we’re going to play yet. It could be the team we just played (South Carolina) and they’re a structured team. I played them last year in the finals. I think we’re a way [better] talented group but they’re structured and they work hard – and in the playoffs that’s the name of the game.”
That now begins on Thursday when the Jacksonville Icemen come to town for the final time this season. Berehowsky said that with third place still not quite locked up, there is still plenty of work to do and no time to sit back.
“We want to finish as high as we can. We want to go in on a high note and win as many games as we can so we have to get back to work,” he said. “We have to realize that [for] whoever’s in the lineup, hard work trumps anything and we’ve got to get back to it.”
Notes: Final shots for the game favored South Carolina 29-20… The Stingrays went 3-for-7 on the power play while the Solar Bears were 0-for-5. In the three games between the two teams, Orlando was 0-for-16 while South Carolina was 3-for-16… The Solar Bears played without defenseman Nolan Valleau who was called up by the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals and played in the Ads game Sunday against Iowa. Valleau recorded one shot on net and was a plus-1… Solar Bears veteran forward Kale Kerbashian was scratched following pregame warmups… Orlando’s Hunter Fejes played twice over the weekend for the Toronto Marlies, recording three shots on net and ending with an even rating… The Solar Bears magic number for locking up the number three seed remained at five over fourth place Atlanta. The Gladiators are off until Wednesday when they host Kalamazoo befor heading to play the Florida Evervlades in Estero on Saturday at the same time Orlando hosts Greenville. The Solar Bears and Gladiators have one last head-to-head battle on the schedule on Friday, April 6th in Duluth… Orlando will finish the regular season against South Carolina the following night.
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