MAITLAND, FL – Coming off the ice at the RDV Sportsplex Ice Den Tuesday morning, the faces of the players and coaches for the Orlando Solar bears told a story – one of excitement mixed with confidence as the 2018 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs get underway. There also seemed to be a sense that they know that their time to rewrite the ECHL franchise’s post-season history is now and just waiting for new ink to be put to paper.
When they step on the ice at the North Charleston Coliseum Thursday night in game one of their best-of-seven South division semifinal, the Solar Bears will have much to prove if they are to make a serious run this playoff season but if there is anything Orlando has proven this year, it is that anything is possible.
“Playoffs are always fun no matter who you play. They [South Carolina] have a great team and we have our work cut out for us,” Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said before the team left for North Charleston. “We’re working on the things we need to improve on and hopefully we’ll go in there with some energy and we’ll be able to get some wins.”
Orlando’s post-season history is already getting a bit of a script change. The team has made three previous trips to the playoffs (2014 against Cincinnati, 2015 and 2017 against Florida) and ended in first round defeats. Last year’s loss to the Everblades was especially difficult to take as the Solar Bears sawa 3-to-1 series lead turn into a seven game series loss thanks in part to an injury to goalie Ryan Massa during a line brawl at the end of game four.
This time around, the first round opponent will be the Stingrays. South Carolina may present a different look from the colors of the Everblades but the effort needed to topple the second-seeded squad from the low country will have to be just as high.
In a basic comparison of number on paper, South Carolina finished with a 48-16-7-1 record for 104 points (a new franchise record) to Orlando’s 33-30-6-3 mark and 75 points. At home in the Amway Center, the Solar Bears shook off a slow start early to post a 16-13-3-4 record on home ice while they had a respectable 17-17-2-0 record on the road. As for the Stingrays, they were incredible consistent no matter where they played, going 24-8-4-0 at home and 24-8-3-1 on the road.
The teams were just about level in goals scored (212 for Orlando, 214 for South Carolina) and the man advantage tallies by each were also close as the Solar Bears netted 55 to the Stingrays 51. Orlando’s success rate on the power play came in at 16 percent efficiency while South Carolina’s was a bit higher at 17.8 percent. The Solar Bears rugged style of play drew a total of 1,332 penalty minutes, which was among the top five for most PIMs accrued in the entire league, while the Stingrays earned 922 penalty minutes.
Where the teams differed was on defense. Orlando surrendered 228 goals in 72 regular season games, averaging a little over three goals allowed per contest. On the penalty kill, the Solar Bears were successful 82.8 percent of the time.
The Stingrays on defense were, well, other worldly. Over the course of the regular season, South Carolina established three new league records – putting them among the best to ever play in the 30-year history of the premiere double-A league. The first was fewest goals allowed at just 153, which came out to 2.13 given up per game which was also a record. The third new mark was fewest power play goals allowed at 27. The Stingrays also killed penalties at a success rate of 90.5 percent – including a 92.3 rate on the road – to establish the highest percentage since the league began tracking the statistic during the 1991-92 season.
Playing against a team as good at playing defense as South Carolina does seems like a daunting task but as he has for most of the season, Berehowsky had a simple philosophy for dealing with it.
“Records are meant to be broken. They had a good year. They played well but [the] playoffs are a whole different story,” he said. “Like I said, we know we have out work cut out for us. It’s not going to be easy – nothing worthwhile is ever easy – so we’re going to go out and give it out best.”
The season series between the true rivals was clearly broken into two parts. The first section came during the four meetings played between November 25th and January13th. Orlando won all four contests, three of them by one score including a shootout, while outscoring South Carolina 12-7.
Starting with the game in North Charleston on January 26th, the Stingrays flipped the script by taking the final seven battles with two of them coming in shootouts on enemy ice. They outscored the Solar Bears 25-8 during that period.
One of the biggest factors in the turnaround was special teams. In the first four games, the teams were almost dead even withSouth Carolina connecting on three of 21 power play attempts while Orlando was 2-for-20. During the last seven tussles, the Stingrays hit for eight man advantage goals in 34 tries to the Solar Bears 1-for-33 performance. Put the two parts together and Orlando only score on 5.6 percent of its opportunities (3-for-53) while South Carolina flourished at 11-for-55.
It is said that defense wins championships and no position says defense more than goalie. It took a while but Solar Bears netminders Cal Heeter and Mackenzie Skapski became a pretty solid tandem. Heeter (19-15-4-2, 2.74 goals against average, .915 save percentage) and Skapski (12-14-2-1, 3.03, .906) had some outstanding night during the back half of the season to get Orlando into the third spot in the division standings.
Their counterparts for the Stingrays, Parker Milner and Jeff Jakaitis, have been nothing short of remarkable. Milner finished the year with a 28-7-3-0 record, a .929 save percentage and a league-leading 1.86 goals against average – the fourth lowest posted in league history. Jakaitis had the third best goals against average in 2017-18 at 2.13 to go with an 18-7-3-0 record and a save percentage of .922.
Berehowsky, who has been a staunch supporter of his netminders all season, said that based on their play during the stretch run and in recent practices, his guys are ready for battle.
“They’ve been great. You watch them in ptactice [and] they’re stopping pucks, they look confident,” Berehowsky said. “They’re enjoying this and when you enjoy what you’re doing, you’re going to go a lot further.”
As far as the skaters go, South Carolina boasts three forwards – Kelly Zajac (20 goals, 36 assists), Steven Whitney (18 goals, 36 assists) and Joe Devin (20 goals, 36 assists) – who have eclipsed the 50-point plateau. Five more Stingrays have between 30 and 39 points including two defensemen, Paul Geiger (12 goals, 23 assists) and Frankie Simonelli who is currently on a callup to the AHL. Fellow blueliner Joey Leach sits at 26 points.
For the Solar Bears, Max Novak has been a solid contributor all season with 21 goals and 36 assists for 57 points. J.J. Piccinich (18 goals, 25 assists), Martins Dzierkals (15 goals, 21 assists) and Joe Perry (18 goals, 14 assists) have all been keys to Orlando’s success. On the blue line, Mike Monfredo (7 goals, 16 assists) and Sam Jardine are the current top offensive defensemen with Nolan Valleau up with the AHL’s Utica Comets.
Orlando recently got back sniper Hunter Fejes (30 goals, 29 assists) and Jean Dupuy (9 goals, 15 assists) along with defenseman Alex Gudbranson back from its AHL affiliate in Toronto. A day later, forwards Josh Winquist and Kristian Pospisil – who combined for 31 goals and 79 points – headed north to join the Marlies and will not be available for the post-season.
Asked about the absence of Winquist and Pospisil, Berehowsky said that the other memebers of the team will need to pick up the slack, a mantra of “next man up” that has been prevalent throughout the season.
“We have what we have here [for a roster]. I’m really happy getting those guys [Fejes, Dupuy and Gudbranson] back. It’s huge for us,” he said. “Of course we’re going to miss the guys we lost but we can’t dwell on that. We want to go out with the guys we have and we’re going to do a job. The guys are ready. They’re excited and hopefully we’ll get some wins.”
So what according to Berehowsky will be the keys to beating the Stingrays and moving on to the second round against the winner of the Atlanta-Florida series? After giving the answer of scoring more goals, the former NHL defenseman got serious and said it will come down to the Solar Bears being the Solar Bears.
“We’ve got to play our game. We’ve got to play disciplined. We’ve got to stay out of the [penalty] box. We’ve got to make it hard on them,” he said. “They’re a good team and like I said they don’t give up much. We’ve got to get to those hard areas.
“[We’ve got] a great bunch of guys. They’ve come together in the last month here. [In] our last twenty games, we’ve got a pretty good record,” he continued. “The boys have pulled together and that’s the team I want playing. We’re not worried about the records during the [regular] season. We’re worried about Thursday night’s game and that’s all we’re concerned about.”
Contat the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.