ORLANDO, FLA – The calendar may have read May 4th but for the Orlando Solar Bears, Friday’s game four against the Florida Everblades represented the possible end of their season. Down 0-3 in the best-of-seven ECHL South divisional final, the Solar Bears needed to find something, anything, to inspire them to a victory to force a game five on Sunday.
Orlando’s Joe Perry (center) celebrates one of his two goals in Friday’s game four with his teammates (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Whether it was a mystical force or the force of words from its captain and veteran leaders Thursday night, Orlando found a way to extende its Kelly Cup playoffs run for at least two more days.
Led by veteran Joe Perry who netted a pair of goals and goalie Mackenzie who followed a solid relief appearance a night before with 33 saves to boost the Solar Bears to a 5-3 win over the Everblades in front of an announced crowd of 7,065 at the Amway Center. Rookie Martins Dzierkals recorded what proved to be the game-winning score and added an assist as Orlando’s offense finally showed its productive side when the team and its fans really needed it.
“It was kind of the same thing we’ve been preaching all playoffs. The difference tonight was that we had guys buying in, we didn’t have any passengers. We need everybody to be at their best if we’re going to beat these guys [Florida],” Perry said after scoring a game-tying and the game clinching empty net tallies. “I think maybe in the first three games we didn’t have that full buy-in for whatever reason. Tonight it was a different story. I think everybody was playing to their maximum potential and you saw [the] good results.”
Facing a win-or-go-home scenario after a poor effort on Thursday, captain Sean Zimmerman called out his teammates as a group in hopes of lighting a fire. Zimmerman’s words and his actions, particularly his amped up physical play in the first period proved to be a catalyst when at the 5:17 mark of the opening frame when Dzierkals threaded a pass from below the goal line to Chris LeBlanc in the slot. LeBlanc snapped off a quick slot that cleanly beat Florida goalie Callum Booth low to the stick side for his second post-season goal.
Skapski, who was making his first start since April 6th, was rock solid throughout the first. He was able to handle everything until late in the frame when the failure of the defense to collect and clear rebounds left a mark on the scoreboard. With just over two minutes left before  the intermission, Skapski turned away a shot by Justin Kea. The rebound found its way to the stick of Brett Bulmer who also felt the sting of the goalie’s pads. The third kick out was dragged in by Matt Berry who slid it past a diving Skapski for his first of the playoffs and a 1-1 tie after twenty minutes.
The lack of clearing the slot bit Orlando again in the second period. Seven minutes into the frame and working on a power play, Mitchell Heard’s shot was stopped by Skapski only to see David Dziurzynski scooped up the disc and pop it into the twine for his third of the post-season and the Everblades first and only lead of the game.
Booth, who was making his second playoff start, was not seeing much in the way of shots as late as twelve minutes into the stanza but when he did he was tough. Just ask Dzierkals, who saw the Florida netminder take away a sure goal with a huge save.
“I was robbed one time but that’s okay, it’s hockey,” Dzierkals said with a smile. “It happens.”
Solar Bears goalie Mackenzie Skapski (center) makes one of his 33 saves as teammate Nolan Valleau and Florida’s David Dziurzynski look on (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
With the huge crowd growing tense, Perry stepped up and made a big play. He took the puck away from Heard at center ice and sped off on a breakaway. As he got in tight, Booth’s movement opened up the space between his legs and the veteran forward hit the hole for the game-tying tally with a little over seven minutes left in the frame.
The noise meters on the Amway Center’s jumbotron nearly pinned out as the fans celebrated loudly but Perry did not hear it because he was in the middle of his own celebration with his teammates.
“I think I was kind of fired up myself so you don’t really notice how loud it is,” Perry said. “They’re [the fans] amazing. You saw it all game how loud and supportive they were.”
Following a successful penalty kill, Dzierkals forced Florida’s John McCarron to commit a penalty. It took just 19 seconds for Orlando to cash in when Fejes zipped a pass from below the goal line to Max Novak on the back side. Novak, who led the Solar Bears in power play points during the regular season, slammed the puck past Booth with 1:01 left on the clock for his second playoff goal.
Holding a slim lead at the second intermission, Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky said the discussion in the locker room was about one thing: maintaining the lead.
“We just had to continue to play the same way and not change. When they come out with their push, we have to push back,” Berehowsky said. “I thought our guys did a good job tonight.”
The Solar Bears had plenty of chances to extend the margin with not one but two 5-on-3 power plays but Booth (25 saves) and the Everblades hung tough. Eventually Orlando did get that fourth goal thanks to the speed and skill of Fejes and Dzierkals. The pair busted out on an odd-man rush with Fejes in control. Fejes was able to draw the lone defenseman to his side before laying a pass to Dzierkals. Playing with the patience of a veteran, Dzierkals make a fake to get Booth moving before dragging the puck to his backhand and sliding it home for his first ever professional playoff goal.
“Feej [Fejes] made a good turnover and he got the puck. I saw that there was only one defenseman left so we were already two against one,” the Latvian born forward said. “I was just skating as hard as I could. The defenseman went to Feej and he gave me a great pass. All I had to do was make a fake shot [then go to my] backhand and it went in.”
The Dzierkals tally ramped up the tension and seconds later, a scrum behind the Orlando net broke into two pairings with the Solar Bears Mike Monfredo squaring up with Florida’s Bulmer while Alex Gudbranson and the Everblades’ Kea got together. All four picked up minors but the fuse had been lit.
Martins Dzierkals (22, left) and Hunter Fejes (23, right) celebrate after Orlando’s fourth goal Friday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
At the 14:24 mark of the third, Spencer Smallman followed up on a drive to the net by Sam Warning and scored his first to cut the Solar Baers lead to 4-3. It ended up being as close as the visitors would get as Perry took a feed from Monfredo and launced the puck into an empty Florida net for his second of the night with 26.4 second to go.
With 5.1 seconds left on the clock, the bad blood boiled over and everyone except for the two goalies paired up in a scene that was eerily reminiscent of last year’s game four when a full-on line brawl turned the fate of the series. Zimmerman and Bulmer became the feature battle as the two began throwing big punches. When the dust settled, Everblades players Nelson Armstrong (minor for cross checking) and Keegan Kanzig (continuing altercation misconduct) were done for the night while Bulmer received a fighting major and a match fight penalty for fighting with materials on his hands that causes an injury or punched an unsuspecting player and causes an injury (Zimmerman was cut in the fight).
For his part, Zimmerman was tagged for a fighting major, a minor for instigating and a game misconduct for instigating during the final five minutes of regulation. Eventually order was restored and the Solar Bears had their first win of the series.
Asked about what he thought the difference was between Thursday’s loss and Friday’s win, Berehowsky said it was all about playing Solar Bears hockey.
“I thought we played the way we can. We were skating and when we’re skating, we’re a hard team to play against,” he said.
Skapski said getting the win felt quite good given all of the circumstances. He added that the confidence gained in beating the Everblades will come in handy on Sunday.
“It felt great. Obviously they’ve kind of taken it to us in the last three games here. Just to get one and keep building off that is a good feeling,” Skapski said. “We have some good emotion going into the next game and that’s definately helpful. We just have to come back Sunday afternoon and do the exact same thing.”
Asked what he thought Orlando needed to do to win in game five, Perry echoed Skapski’s comments about repeating Friday’s effort.
“More of the same,”Perry said. “Stay on the body, capitalize on chances like we did tonight, have good goaltending like we had tonight and I think we’ll be alright.”
Notes: Florida continued its control of the shot clock, outshooting Orlando 36-30…Both teams went 1-for-6 on the power play in the contest… The teams combined for 80 penalty minutes with the Everblades being assessed 43 to 37 for the Solar Bears… Fejes’ three assists tied the ECHL Orlando franchise mark set by defenseman Bryce Aneloski against Florida on April 23, 2015. His plus-4 rating broke the team record of plus-3 that he shared with Darik Angeli and Chris Crane that was established on April 22 last season… Orlando is now 3-3 in elimination games… Sunday’s game five puck drop is set for 1:30 p.m. at the Amway Center.
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