GREENVILLE, SC – In the wake of a bad 6-1 loss to Atlanta on Wednesday night, the Orlando Solar Bears wanted badly to bounce back against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. The question was how would they do it.
Balanced scoring and goaltending, that’s how.
Martins Dzierkals, Max Novak, Kristian Pospisil and Hunter Fejes each collected a goal and an assist to lead twelve different players with at least a point as Orlando (29-26-5-1, 64 points) thrashed Greenville (21-33-6-1, 49 points) 7-1 in front of an announced crowd of 7,556 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Goalie Cal Heeter, coming off being pulled from Wednesday’s contest, rebounded with 37 saves to compliment the Solar Bears offense.
With the win and losses by Atlanta, Norfolk and Jacksonville, Orlando gained ground in both clinching a playoff berth and maintaining its hold on the third seed in the ECHL’s South division. Any combination of twelve points gained by the Solar Bears or lost by the Admirals and Icemen will give Orlando its fourth trip to the Kelly Cup playoffs in six seasons. Additionally, any combo of sixteen points won by the Solar Bears or failed to get by the Gladiators will guarantee Central Florida’s team the third position heading into the post season.
Head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky was expecting his team to start off much better than it had three days earlier and the Solar Bears gave it to him. Just 1:40 into the first period, Orlando used its speedy transition game as Dzierkals fired a shot from the circle to the left of Greenville goalie Ty Rimmer and hit the top corner to Rimmer’s right for his 14th goal of the season.
Midway through the frame, the Swamp Rabbits took advantage of a defensive lapse by the Solar Bears to even the score. At the 9:33 mark, David Echeverri took the puck and found a wide open J.T. Henke who beat Heeter low to the glove side for his second of the season in his sixth outing with Greenville.
Orlando’s power play, which was 0-for-11 in its last three games, got a chance late in the period and made it count. Newcomer Robbie Baillargeon sent the puck to the point where Mike Monfredo lined up a blast. Joe Perry was in the right place to redirect the puck up and over Rimmer for his 12th score of the year and his first in ten games.
Up 2-1 heading into the second, the Solar Bears repeated their first period start. It took only 1:28 this time as defenseman Sean Zimmerman sent Novak in on Rimmer. Novak surveyed the situation and beat the Swamp Rabbits netminder between the legs for his 17th goal of the season.
Greenville, which was coming off breaking a long losing streak the night before, put on a big push in an effort to trim the margin back to one. At one point, the Swamp Rabbits had the Solar Bears pinned in their defensive zone and running out of gas. That was when Fejes stepped in, intercepting the puck and darting past a defender for a clean breakaway. Fejes moved in and cleanly beat Rimmer for his 25th goal of the season and ninth in a Solar Bears uniform.
Just shy of ninety seconds later, Orlando’s lead grew to 5-1 when Novak set up Kale Kerbashian for a shot from the slot that found the back of the net. For Kerbashian, it was his fifth tally as a Solar Bear and a deflating moment for the home standing Swamp Rabbits.
While all of the scoring was going on, Heeter was the calm, cool and collected goaltender that the Solar Bears had hoped he would be. After stopping eleven of twelve shots in the first, he turned away all thirteen that he faced in the second to help his team hold that 5-1 lead heading into the final frame.
Not satisfied with a four goal lead, the Solar Bears went back to work in the third, scoring twice. The first came at the 6:20 mark when Pospisil lit the goal light for his 13th goal of the season. In the final minute, defenseman Adam Phillips caromed a shot off of a Greenville defender and past Rimmer (20 saves) for his second of the year to close out the scoring.
In between the goals, Greenville’s Jake Schultz nailed Pospisil with a hard cross-check, sending the Orlando forward to the ice bleeding. Zimmerman immediately stepped in and challended Schultz with plenty of big blows being landed. Whether that incident continues over to Sunday’s rematch remains to be seen.
Notes: Final shots ended up 38-27 in favor of Greenville… The Solar Bears went 1-for-4 on the power play while the Swamp Rabbits were 0-for-3… Orlando is now 13-0-0-0 when Dzierkals scores a goal and is 7-0-0-0 when the Latvian Lightning Bolt has a multi-point game… With his 17th win, Heeter pulled into a tie for fourth on the ECHL Solar Bears list for most wins by a goalie in a single season with John Curry. Heeter has now also moved into second place in most games played in a single season, trailing only Ryan Massa… In addition to acquiring Baillargeon from South Carolina at the trade deadline, Orlando also signed Manny Gialedakis out of the University of Guelph (CIS) to an amateur tryout. Gialedakis did not play as Novak returned from his second callup of the week to the Toronto Marlies in time to suit up in Saturday’s contest.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.