NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Heading into Friday night’s road contest, the Orlando Solar Bears were a perfect 4-0-0-0 against the South Carolina Stingrays this season. All of the matchups had been tight affairs but the Solar Bears always managed to get just enough offense to win.
Friday night at the North Charleston Coliseum, the offense had a problem lighting the goal light and it came back to haunt them.
Three goals in a span of one minute and 25 seconds early in the third period proved to be the difference as South Carolina (25-10-4-1, 55 points) defeated its visitors from Central Florida by a final of 3-1 in front of an announced crowd of 3,880. The outburst by the Stingrays spoiled what had been a defensive battle thru two periods and kept the Solar Bears(18-18-5-1, 42 points) from inching closer to third place in the ECHL’s South division.
Riding in off of a big win against the Florida Everblades last Sunday, Orlando was facing a Stingrays team that was having its own issues putting the puck in the net. Dating back to the second period of a game against Norfolk last Saturday, South Carolina had gone almost 86 minutes without finding the back of the net and Solar Bears netminder Cal Heeter was determined to extend the streak of scoreless hockey for the Stingrays.
Heeter, who brought a 4-0 mark with a 1.72 goals against average and a .944 save percentage against South Carolina into the contest, had a starring role in the first period on Friday. An early save on Steven Whitney and four huge stops during a Stingrays power play before the opening stanza was half over kept Orlando from being blown out.
At the other end of the ice, South Carolina goalie Jeff Jakaitis was having a relatively easy go of it, facing just five Solar Bears chances that were spread out during the opening twenty minutes to keep the score deadlocked at 0-0 into the first intermission.
The second frame was more of the same from the goalies. Jakaitis turned away an early breakaway by Orlando’s Hunter Fejes – the only shot on net the visitors recorded in the first seven minutes of the period. Heeter, on the other hand, had his hands full as the Stingrays piled up seven shots in the same time frame.
Things between the two divisional rivals got a bit heated at the 12:46 mark of the period when Solar Bears veteran forward Darryl Bootland took exception to a pair of hits laid out by the Stingrays Marcus Perrier. Bootland took up for his teammates and threw down with Perrier in a good battle.
Things turned for the Solar Bears early in the third period when Kristian Pospisil took a penalty at the 25 second mark. During  the man advantage that ensued, Frankie Simonelli put the puck on the stick of Kelly Zajac who beat Heeter to the top corner of the net for his 10th goal of the season and the first score of the game.
Forty seconds later, Hampus Gustafsson took control of the puck and started a rush up ice after a bad hop at his defensive blue line. He drove all the way in and netted his third of the year at the 1:53 mark. That was followed a little over forty later by a shot by Danny Federico that snaked its way through traffic and found the back of the net for the defenseman’s second of the season to make it 3-0 South Carolina.
The Stingrays smelled blood and kept pounding away at Heeter but the Solar Bears netminder regained his composure and held the fort as shot after shot rained down on him. Meanwhile at the other end, Jakaitis did not see his first shot of the final frame until just over nine minutes had been played.
Orlando avoided being shut out when Kyle Rankin took a feed from Sean Zimmerman and drove from the corner toward the net. He fired a shot that Jakaitis stopped but the rebound got away from the goalie. Rankin followed his attempt and put it past Jakaitis for his second of the season with 4:11 left on the clock to trim the deficit to 3-1.
Solar Bears head coach Drake Berehowsky pulled Heeter (34 saves) with three minutes left in regulation looking to get a bit closer. Try as they might, his players just could not find a second tally as Jakaitis (19 saves) and the Stingrays survived a furious flurry of shots to pick up their first win over Orlando this season.
Notes: South Carolina outshot Orlando 17-7 in the third period and finished the game with a 37-20 shot advantage… Zajac’s power play marker was the lone man advantage score in the contest as the Stingrays finished 1-for-6 while Orlando went 0-for-3… Forward Josh Winquist rejoined the Solar Bears after a brief callup to the AHL Toronto Marlies. In a separate move, the Marlies called up defenseman Nolan Valleau earlier in the week… The two teams will meet again Saturday night at the North Charleston Coliseum at 7 p.m.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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