GREENVILLE, SC – On any given night, any ECHL player can be the hero. That fact is even truer when a contest goes into overtime or a shootout. All it takes is one play, one opportunity and making good on that chance to win a game.
Friday night at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Orlando Solar Bears second year forward Jake Coughler turned what has been a tough start around by making big plays when his team needed them.
Coughler, who started the season on injured reserve, netted a pair of goals including the game-winner in overtime to lift Orlando (7-6-1-0) to a 4-3 victory over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits by a final of 4-3 in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 1,900. Coughler also had an assist for a three-point night while teammate Scott Conway chipped in with a goal and an assist to help the Solar Bears end a three-game winless streak.
The game winner came just 32 seconds into the extra frame when Tristin Langan sent the puck toward the Greenville net. Coughler was in the right spot to redirect the shot between the legs for Swamp Rabbits netminder Ryan Bednard for his second of the night and fourth of the season in eight games played.
The night started off well for the visitors, who were coming off a shutout loss to the Florida Everblades on Wednesday. The Solar Bears’ effort was strong from the opening faceoff and their team speed paid off quickly. Just 7:40 into the first period, Johno May lobbed a clearing pass into the Greenville end of the ice. Orlando team captain Chris LeBlanc took off like a rocket, running the loose puck down and sweeping behind Bednard and the net before tucking in a wraparound for his fourth of the year. It was also a milestone for LeBlanc as it was his 100th career point in a Solar Bears uniform.
Less than three minutes later, the host Swamp Rabbits answered back with a game-tying tally. Defenseman Ben Finkelstein made the key play, talking a pass back at the point before launching the puck toward the Orlando cage. Brendan Connolly was standing in front and redirected the disc past Solar Bears goalie Michael Lackey for his third goal of the season.
Coughler began to make his presence felt early in the middle frame. The Solar Bears forced a Swamp Rabbits defensive zone turnover. Conway took the puck and teed it up for Coughler who rocketed a snap shot past Bednar’s catching glove for his third and a 2-1 Orlando lead.
Midway through the period, Lackey made a pair of huge saves, robbing Finkelstein from in close and then scrambling to deny a second opportunity. He was not so lucky when at the 12:29 mark a Finkelstein point shot was tipped on net by Anthony Rinaldi. Lackey made the save but the puck trickled into the crease where Rinaldi tapped it home for his second to knot the score at 2-2.
The tie lasted all of two minutes before Greenville took its first and only lead of the night. Some hard forechecking by Joey Haddad forced an Orlando turnover. The puck went to Luc Brown who fed it to Haddad in the faceoff circle to Lackey’s right. Haddad slid a cross-ice pass to a wide open Connolly who scooped a backhander past the Solar Bears netminder for Connolly’s second of the game and fourth of the season.
Orlando dug its heels in, wanting to even things up heading to the third period and it worked. Coughler started the sequence with a pass from his defensive zone to center ice where Aaron Luchuk took it. Luchuk in turn fed Conway who was cruising past heading for the Swamp Rabbits end. Using a defender as a distraction, Conway wired a low, hard shot from the top of the circle to Bednard’s left for his first goal as a Solar Bear and a 3-3 tie after two.
The final forty minutes of regulation were played to a scoreless deadlock, thanks in part to Lackey (35 saves) and Bednard (31 saves). The pair combined to stop all 19 shots on net (11 for Lackey, 8 for Bednard) to send the game into overtime. It all led to Coughler getting just enough of Langan’s shot to squeeze it through Bednard with enough momentum to trickle over the goal line for the winner.
Orlando gets Saturday off before finishing the week with a Sunday afternoon home tilt against South Carolina at the Amway Center at 3 p.m. Greenville continues its three-in-three home game weekend with a Saturday night contest against Jacksonville at 7:05 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 37-35 in favor of Greenville… Neither team scored on the power play as Orlando went 0-for-4 while Greenville went 0-for-6… With his first period goal, Orlando’s LeBlanc tied Brett Findlay for third all-time in goals scored by and ECHL Solar Bears player at 38… By getting a point, the Swamp Rabbits extended their streak of points to 10 games, tying the franchise record set by the 2010-2011 and 2014-2015 Greenville Road Warriors (who were rebranded as the Swamp Rabbits in after they had relocated from Johnstown, PA. The 1993-1994 Johnstown Chiefs hold the overall franchise mark as 12 straight games without a loss in regulation…The goal and assist by the Solar Bears’ Conway were his first points since joining the team.
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