ORLANDO, FL – Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center in Orlando, the Jacksonville Icemen and Orlando Solar Bears played their third game in three days. Orlando had won the two previous games in Jacksonville (5-3 & 3-0) and had won five of the seven meetings between the two clubs this season.
Jacksonville’s Colton Phinney (center) and Dajon Mingo follow the puck while fending off Orlando’s Chris Crane (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Jacksonville started Colton Phinney (2-3-1-1) in net while Orlando started Cal Heeter (9-8-2-1).
The first half of period one has highlighted by a battle between Garet Hunt of Jacksonville and Joshua Winquist. Hunt ended up with a double minor for roughing and Winquist received a minor for cross-checking.
Orlando would open up the scoring at the 15:00 mark when Alex Gudbranson recorded his second of the season on assists from Kale Kerbashian and Martins Dzierkals. At 17:32, just one second after a penalty on Gudbranson had ended, Jacksonville tied the game as Tyson Fawcett recorded his seventh of the season, with the assists going to Christopher Dienes and Dajon Mingo. There would be no more scoring in the period, the game tied at 1-1.
Shots on goal in the first period were Orlando 13, Jacksonville 10. Orlando picked up 9 minutes in penalties during the stanza, Jacksonville 6.
Orlando took the lead in the second period but the way that they got it was interesting. Jacksonville got a four minute power play when Kristain Pospisil was sent off for high sticking. During the second half of the power play, Orlando’s Kale Kerbashian recorded an unassisted short-handed goal at 12:53. It was Kerbashian’s first goal of the season in his first game with the Solar Bears.
Jacksonville reversed the shots on goal in the second, outshooting the Solar Bears 18-9 and taking the overall shots lead 28-22. Jacksonville was assessed ten minutes in penalties, Orlando was hit with 12. Overall, after two, Orlando has 21 penalty minutes to 16 for Jacksonville.
Jacksonville goalie Colton Phinney (left) waits for Orlando’s Kristain Pospisil tomake a move. (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Defense was the name of the game in the third period. After the first two periods saw both teams combine for over 20 shots on goal between them in each, the third period saw only 13 shots on goal, Jacksonville ending up with a 7-6 advantage. Penalty minutes were also down in the third, only three minors were called, with one of those taking place with seven seconds left.
The only goal was an empty netter by Orlando’s Chris LeBlanc (his eighth of the season) at 19:18 of the period. Winquist was given the only assist and the game would end with Orlando sweeping all three games from Jacksonville, winning this one 3-1.
Icechips: Orlando recorded an empty net goal in each of the three weekend games with Jacksonville… The final shot total was Jacksonville 35, Orlando 28… Orlando had 25 penalty minutes in the game, Jacksonville 21… The three stars of the game were all Solar Bears. Kale Kerbashian was first, Cal Heeter 2nd and Chris LeBlanc 3rd… The two teams will face off again only one more time during the regular season, and that isn’t until March 29th in Orlando… Jacksonville’s next game is at home Wednesday when the Icemen host Greenville…Orlando’s next game is Friday when the Solar Bears travel to Greenville.
Contact the author at kenneth.holdren@prohockeynews.com
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