Wednesday, April 1, 1998 | 8:58 a.m.
The Las Vegas Thunder has six games to fix a major problem before the playoffs begin.
Even though the Thunder entered Tuesday night's meeting with the Orlando Solar Bears on a three-game win streak, it was rolling in spite of itself.
The Thunder has struggled on the power play since last week's trade of defenseman Steve Bancroft, and the trend continued against the Solar Bears, one of the worst penalty killing teams in the IHL.
Las Vegas went 0 for 9 with the man advantage -- including a 5-on-3 opportunity for 1:18 late in the second period -- and lost 4-3 in its third shootout in as many outings at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Orlando entered the game ranked 14th out of 18 IHL teams in penalty killing percentage at 82.2 percent. Las Vegas entered fifth in power-play percentage at 18.5 percent.
"We're not doing what we should be doing on the power play," said Patrice Lefebvre, who scored two goals and now leads the IHL in scoring with 107 points. "It's disturbing."
Bancroft, considered the keystone of the Thunder power play and one of the IHL's top scoring blue liners, was traded along with Justin Kurtz to the Calgary Flames last Monday for bulk players Sam Helenius, Keith McCambridge and Paxton Schulte.
In the four games since the deal, the Thunder has converted just one of 31 power-play chances. Throw in Bancroft's last game and the team is one for its last 36 opportunities.
"We stay too much on the perimeter on power plays," head coach Clint Malarchuk said. "We're moving the puck around pretty good. But we gotta penetrate. We gotta go to the net."
Thunder general manager Bob Strumm also noted his team was too careful with the puck.
"You can't score if you don't shoot," Strumm said. "There aren't many things I know, but I'm sure that's one of them."
Sergei Yerkovich has replaced Bancroft on the chief power-play unit, and the other players are still getting used to it. In addition, Las Vegas lost key power-play defenseman David Shaw when he abruptly left the team because of personal reasons two weeks ago.
"David Shaw and Steve Bancroft were two of the best defensemen in the league," captain Joe Day said. "We were definitely stunned by those losses.
"Now it's just a matter of everybody getting on the same page."
Right wing Ken Quinney, who has a franchise-record 15 power-play goals and counting this season, claims the Thunder's unfamiliarity with Yerkovich has made the team tentative.
"You get hot out there and the confidence crosses over into crisper passes and better shots," said Ken Quinney, who assisted on all of the Thunder's goals Tuesday. "We were used to (Bancroft) back there the whole year.
"Sergei just got put into that situation, but it's just a matter of time. With Jesse Belanger, Patrice Lefebvre and Joe Day, we're bound to get our chances sooner or later."
The Thunder converted one of its 17 power-play opportunities in the two experimental four-quarter games against the Detroit Vipers over the weekend, but still managed to win both in shootouts.
"It's very frustrating," Day said. "Each time against Detroit we fought and scratched and clawed to two wins, but we should have buried them."
Las Vegas appeared in command against Orlando. Day netted the first goal at 8:24 of the first period, but the lead didn't last long. Twenty-eight seconds later, Anders Bjork notched his first professional goal to tie the score.
Lefebvre gave the Thunder another lead at 16:25 of the first and extended it to 3-1 with his 25th goal of the season just 45 ticks into the third period.
But the Solar Bears besieged Thunder goaltender Manny Legace in the third period with 20 of their 40 shots. One resulted in a power-play goal from Ben Hankinson at 3:42. Mark Beaufait then tied the score at 7:09 off an assist from Hankinson.
In the shootout, Legace (17-13-4) was beaten by three of four Orlando snipers. Solar Bears goalie David Littman (19-12-6) stopped his first three offerings -- from Lefebvre, Russ Romaniuk, Belanger -- to record the victory.
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