NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Playing with house money after winning game one on Thursday, the Orlando Solar Bears went hunting for a second consecutive win on the road against the South Carolina Stingrays on Saturday night. What started out as a goal to earn a split – a reasonable one for teams starting away from home – became a quest to give the visitors from Central Florida a realistic shot to win the best-of-seven ECHL South division semifinal series at home.
Consider the idea of succeeding in that quest very much alive and well.
Goalie Cal Heeter once again stole the show with 23 saves while Max Novak and J.J. Piccinich did the scoring as the Solar Bears again edged South Carolina, this time by a final of 2-1, in front of an announced crowd of 3,993 at the North Charleston Coliseum. The series will now shift to the Amway Center in Orlando for the next three games if necessary beginning Thursday night with Game 3.
For the second straight contest, it was the visitors defense and the stellar play of Heeter between the pipes that propelled the Solar Bears to a win. It was also another clutch night for the offense as it contributed a two-goal second period – one coming on a power play – to provide the margin needed to send the second-seeded Stingrays to defeat.
A rematch of Thursday’s epic goaltender battle seemed almost guaranteed when Heeter and South Carolina’s Parker Milner took to the goal creases to open the game. Neither one disappointed in the first period as they combined to sunff out a total of 14 shots on net. Unlike game one, Milner was the busier of the two in the opening stanza as he was forced to make nine saves while Heeter faced just five Stingrays attempts.
A late period penalty to South Carolina’s Evan Fiala carried over to the second period and the Solar Bears made the home pay with the game’s opening tally. It came 38 seconds into the frame when some good cycling led to veteran Kale Kerbashian getting the puck on the far wing in the Stingrays end. Novak, who had been out at the near side point, saw a wide open lane and skated into the faceoff circle to Milner’s left. Kerbashian found a seam and made a perfect pass across the slot where Novak grabbed it and snapped a shot to the top corner past the goalie’s glove hand for his first playoff goal this season and a 1-0 Orlando lead.
Facing a deficit, South Carolina tried to open its offense up by pushing the tempo and trying to bully the Solar Bears with physical play. Orlando did have to kill a penalty to defenseman Mike Monfredo 4:39 into the stanza but as it had two nights earlier, the special teams units stepped up and held the home team to two shots on the advantage.
Late in the period, the Solar Bears used some hard work along the boards to extend their lead. Jean Dupuy did the dirty work along the dashers, forcing a bad pass and a turnover. Dupuy, who had been with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies at the start of the week, made a quick pass to Piccinich who was curling in the faceoff circle just a couple of feet away. Piccinich took the feed and ripped a shot that went far side past Milner’s glove for the rookie’s second post-season score in as many games.
With less than a minute to go before the second intermission, Orlando’s Adam Phillips was sent to the penalty box, giving South Carolina its second man advantage of the frame and third of the game. The Stingrays pressed hard for a goal but Heeter, with some help from defenseman Alex Gudbranson who dove to block a shot just as the buzzer sounded to keep the puck out, survived the flurry to give the Solar Bears a 2-0 lead heading to the final twenty minutes.
The Stingrays tried to parlay their late-second stanza press into an early-third period tally as the power play rolled over but the Solar Bears defenders kept South Carolina from registering a shot during that 1:15 of advantage time. Finally at the 9:21 mark of the period, the Stingrays beat Heeter as Joey Leach sent Mason Mitchell away with a stretch pass. Using Solar Bears defenseman Sean Zimmerman as a partial screen, Mitchell went short side with a wicked wrist shot for his and his team’s first goal of the series.
Both teams went into smothering defensive mode from there as the offenses were seemingly stuck in mud. Orlando put up just two shots in the final 10:39 of regulation but they didn’t need it as the Solar Bears held South Carolina to a mere three shots in the same period. The last Stingrays shot came off the stick of Kelly Zajac with 57 seconds to go and Milner pulled for an extra attacker but just as he had through most of the two games, Heeter handled it and handed the Solar Bears another big win.
The teams will now head south and get four days off before what now is an all-important game 3. Should the Stingrays win, they will be right back in the series but if the Solar Bears prevail, Orlando will have as many as two shots to close out the series on home ice.
Notes: South Carolina again outshot Orlando, this time by a count of 24-23… The Solar Bears were once again perfect on the penalty kill, going 3-for-3 to give them a 9-for-9 record after two games. Orlando went 1-for-2 with the man advantage and are now 1-for-6 in the series… With the win, Orlando head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky moved ahead of Vince Williams for most post-season coaching victories during the ECHL incarnation of the Solar Bears. Between last season and this, Berehowsky now has five wins behind the bench… Once again South Carolina’s Milner played well enough to win, stopping 21 of the 23 Orlando shots he faced… Heeter’s shutout streak stretched to 109:21 before Mitchell’s goal… The back-to-back wins in games one and two by the Solar Bears matched their start in last year’s divisional semifinal against Florida. Orlando advanced its series lead to three games to one before the Everblades staged a comeback to take the series 4-3… Solar Bears forward Kristian Pospisil, who was recalled along with Josh Winquist by the Marlies on Tuesday, scored his first AHL goal and added an assist as the Marlies defeated Laval 6-4 Saturday afternoon. Pospisil also recorded a plus-3 rating in his first AHL contest.
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