ORLANDO, FL – As the 2017-18 ECHL regular season has gone on, Orlando Solar Bears forward Martins Dzierkals has played his way into the hearts of the fans with his displays of speed and scoring in the clutch, the latest having come on Monday night to beat Norfolk in the last game of February. As Thursday night’s game with the Reading Royals dropped the puck on a three-on-three overtime, Dzierkals found himself on the ice and with the puck in his own end. What happened next was another example of the talents that could have him moving up the ladder much sooner than later.
Orlando’s Martins Dzierkals (right) celebrates his second game-winning goal in as many games with teammate Sam Jardine Thursday night (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Dzierkals completed a coast-to-coast rush with his fifth game-winning goal of the season 27 seconds into the extra period to lift the Solar Bears (27-25-5-1, 60 points) to a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Royals (31-20-5-0, 67 points) in front of an announced crowd of 4,158 at the Amway Center. The victory was the fourth consecutive one for Orlando as it increased its lead over Atlanta for third place in the South division to three points.
The Latvian forward’s solo end-to-end jaunt wound its way through center ice and into the Reading end where he turned on the jets down the boards. He found yet another gear, circling behind the Royals net before putting a wraparound shot past goaltender Mark Dekanich, bringing the crowd to its feet and launching a celebration on the ice.
It was a play that even had Solar Bears head coach and general manager Drake Berehowsky smiling and marveling at Dzerikals’ talents and desire on the ice.
“He’s got so much talent. He gets frustrated at times.He came in after the second period and I told him he wasn’t using his speed to full-out capacity. I think on that last playhe showed us he had another gear,” Berehowsky said. “That’s the way we want him to play all the time. He’s a geat kid. He wants to learn. He wants to get better and I’m happy that he’s a part of this organization. Like I said, he’s got a bright future [ahead].”
Thursday’s battle between the third place teams in the North and South divisions was a rare one. Neither side knew much about the other beyond video study. The first few minutes of the first period were a feeling-out process with the host Solar Bears gaining a territorial advantage as well as the first three shots on net.
All that changed at the 8:54 mark when the Royals struck first. Initially, Mark Bennett attempted to fire a shot at Orlando goalie Cal Heeter but it never got there. The Puck bounced to Michael Huntebrinker who poked it back to Bennett. Bennett lined up a second attempt and it beat Heeter into the top corner to the goalie’s left for Bennett’s third goal of the season.
It was the only goal of the opening frame as Dekanich held off two Solar Bears power play opportunities and handled all seven Orlando shots that came his way. At the other end, Heeter, who was looking for his third consecutive win, settled in after the Bennett tally, denying a pair of Royals man advantage situations on the way to a seven save stanza.
The visitors thought they had doubled their lead just 32 seconds into the second. After consulting with his linesmen and the goal judge, referee Alex Normandin ruled that the puck did not completely cross the goal line.
Spurred on by dodging a bullet, Orlando quickly capitalized to even the score. J.J. Piccinich won an offensive zone faceoff, drawing the puck to Kristian Pospil who rang the disc around the boards. It arrived at the point where defenseman Adam Phillips had the time and room to line up a blast that beat Dekanich, who was partially screened by Kyle Rankin, for the blueliner’s first goal of the season.
“It’s always nice to get the first one. It’s kind of been a while but it’s good to get it in a tight game where it’s kind of meaningful,” Phillips said. “I think it was a faceoff on the left side. I think Piccinich won it back to Pops [Pospisil] and he just fired one. He shot it wide and it rimmed around and I just tried to get it on the net. I don’t know if it went under a couple of guys’ skates or sticks but somehow it found its way into the back of the net.”
Orlando’s J.J. Piccinich fires a shot that became his 15th goal of the season during Thursday night’s game (Photocourtesu of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Just over two minutes later, Orlando went on a penalty kill but it was the Solar Bears who turned defense into offense. A turnover at the Orlando blue line became an odd man rush with Piccinich leading the way. He drove into the faceoff circle to Dekanich’s left where he put a wicked wrist shot into the small space over the netminder’s left shoulder and off the bottom of the crossbar for the rookie’s 15th tally of the season and his third short-handed score.
The contest quickly bogged down from there as a rash ofpenalties interrupted the flow of the game. Both teams had truncated power play chances with neither connecting.
A key sequence of the contest started at the 13:49 mark when Reading’s Chris McCarthy went to the penalty box. Within the space of the next 66 seconds, Orlando’s Dzierkals and Rankin found themselves in the sin bin, creating a four-on-three advantage for the Royals. Fifteen seconds into it, Ryan Penny set up Matt Willows for a laser that beat Heeter for the Royals sniper’s 23rd of the year and a tie game at two.
Not wanting to end the middle frame even up, the Solar Bears put on a late push. With 30.2 ticks left before the intermission, Phillips again found himself with the puck at the point and a shooting lane. He fired and as it gotto the crease area, it hit the skate of Hunter Fejes and bounded in. For Fejes, it was his 24th goal of the season and eighth as a member of the Solar Bears.
Fejes had a chance to give Orlando a two-goal lead with 12:19 left in the third period when Chase Golightly took him down from behind, earning the Solar Bears forward a penalty shot. Fejes drove in and tried to deke Dekanich out of position but the netminder held his ground, denying the opportunity and keeping his team in the game.
Dekanich, who finished the night with 26 saves, later made a trio of saves in the space of a few seconds, the last a pretty glove hand snare of a shot by Joe Perry. Inspired by their goalie’s effort, the Royals evened the score with 6:39 remaining in regulation when the rebound of a shot by McCarthy was whacked home out of a scramble in the blue paint by Tyler Brown for his fifth of the year.
Reading’s Tyler Brown (center) battles for position with Orlando defenseman Alex Gudbranson (left) and goalie Cal Heeter (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Neither Heeter (23 saves) nor Dekanich allowed anything past them, sending the game to overtime. Seconds in, Sam Jardine left the puck for his teammate Dzierkals and the Latvian Lightning Bolt did the rest, turning in a highlight-reel play to give his team the victory.
“We were talking [about] what we were going to do right off the opening faceoff [of the overtime]. If we won it, I was going to skate back and Jards [Jardine] would just drop the puck because usually I go with speed,” Dzierkals said. “They [Jardine and Chris LeBlanc] both drove the middle which made me so much room that I could take. I went with a lot of speed there. I was trying to just go to the net because good things happen if you go to the net and the goalie was a little bit off the net. I just tried to go around the net and luckily it went in.”
Knowing his own skills, Dzierkals said that the opportunity that the open ice in the three-on-three of the extra period provides suits his game perfectly.
“That’s what I love as a player and I think I’m that kind of a player,” he said.”If I have space and room, I feel so comfortable with it. I have to say thanks to Drake [Coach Berehowsky] that he trusts me in those moments.”
For Berehowsky, the fact that his team fought hard to get the two points overshadowed the fact that it may not have been a full sixty minute effort that was exacerbated by playing with a short bench.
“I don’t think it was our best performance but like you said we gutted it out. Everybody played hard,” He said. “We were short a man and they still played well. They came [at it] even after getting pucks in the face [Rankin].They came back right away and I’m proud of the guys.”
Notes: Final shots in the contest favored Orlando 30-26… The Royals went 2-for-7 on the power play whilethe Solar Bears finished 0-for-4 with the man advantage… Phillips’assist on Fejes’ goal was his 50th professional assist… Both Piccinich 92 goals, 2 assists) and Fejes 92 goals, 1 assist) extended their current point streaks to three games… With five game-winners, Dzierkals is now tied with Perry (2016-17 season) and former Solar Bear Scott Tanski (2013-14 season) for the second most game-winning tallies in a single season during the Solar Bears ECHL tenure. Tanski currently plays for Reading… The two teams will meet again on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at the Amway Center. In between, the Royals will drive up to Jacksonville to face the Icemen Friday night.
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