ORLANDO, FLA – With their hopes for getting into the 2021 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs dashed on Friday night in Jacksonville, the Orlando Solar Bears returned to the Amway Center on Saturday. Their single goal was to give their fans the gift of a season-ending win over the Florida Everblades. Try as they might, however, it was simply not in the cards as the hockey gods seemed determined to not allow the faithful legions nor the team itself any happiness. 
A three-goal outburst in the second period opened up a tie game and was just enough to allow the visiting Everblades (42-19-5-3) to beat the rival Solar Bears (36-29-6-1) by a final of 4-3 in front of an announced crowd of 3,132. Alex Kile led the way for Florida with a Gordie Howe hat trick (two goals, one assist and a fight) while teammate Logan Roe chipped in with a goal and an assist and goalie Devin Cooley stopped 43 of 46 shots to secure the win and the franchise’s fourth Brabham Cup (best record in the league) and home ice throughout the 2021 postseason.
The biggest bright spot for Orlando was Anthony Repaci, who scored his first professional hat trick including two in the final frame that made the game a bit closer than it was going to be. Solar Bears rookie netminder Michael Lackey played admirably, making 26 saves to allow his teammates to mount the comeback that fell short.
The loss closed out a week that began with two wins over the Everblades last weekend and knocking Jacksonville out of the playoff picture on Tuesday. It ended with three losses in three days to South Carolina, Jacksonville and Florida that turned what could have been a playoff run into a longer than expected summer vacation.
With little to play for on either side of the ice, the game could have turned into a rock ’em, sock ’em battle that has for nine years been the signature of the Sunshine State rivalry. Some of that did eventually play out but before it did, there was some scoring. The Solar Bears got on the scoreboard first 10:30 into the first period when Nikita Pavlychev created a turnover behind the Florida net. He quickly made a pass to the net front where Repaci was there to rifle home a shot past the glove hand of Everblades goalie Cooley for his 10th goal of his rookie season.
The Everblades took all of 78 seconds to draw the game back to even. Kile did most of the work, taking a drop pass from Michael Neville and firing a shot that was blocked. He followed the play, got the puck back and had a second shot go wide. Continuing to stay on the biscuit, Kile retrieved it one more time and from below the goal line banked it off of Lackey and in for his 24th goal of the season.
Orlando had an opportunity to do some damage when back-to-back penalties to Marcus Vela and Stefan Leblanc gave the Solar Bears a little over a minute of five-on-three power play time. Orlando failed to score during the two-man advantage and the remaining five-on-four time.
The game took a dark turn with just under two minutes remaining before the first intermission. Florida’s Zach Berzolla lined up Orlando’s Jerry D’Amigo for a big hit. The two collided and D’Amigo took the brunt of it, going to the ice and not moving for quite a bit before the trainers were able to get him to his feet and the locker room. Berzolla was assessed a major penalty for charging and a game misconduct, taking away one player from the Everblades lineup and giving the Solar Bears a five-minute power play to work with to finish the first period and start the second.
Florida began its middle frame blitz at the 5:38 mark when Kile dug the puck out of the corner and made a pass to Roe at the top of the faceoff circle to Lackey’s left. Roe maneuvered to face the cage and lasered a shot off the iron and in for his sixth of the year, putting the Everblades in the lead for good. Six minutes and change later, Roe was the giver on a two-on-two foray into the Orlando end. The recipient of his pass was Kile who drifted across the high slot and went high glove side for his second of the game and 25th tally of the season.
The flurry of goals concluded at 13:57 when a Solar Bears turnover at center ice led to a three-on-one break for the Everblades. Luke Nogard carried the puck down the wing before ripping a wrist shot off the crossbar and into the twine for his sixth to give Florida a commanding 4-1 lead that held into the break.
With nothing to lose, Orlando came out hard in the third. The pressure applied eventually led to a turnover behind the Florida net. The puck skidded out across the goal line where Joe Garreffa was the first on it. He wasted no time in sliding the disc to Repaci who buried it for his second of the game and 11th of the year.
Tempers began to flare midway through the stanza when Solar Bears forward Tad Kozun and Kile got into a scrum, drawing each an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. When the pair emerged from the penalty boxes, they immediately threw off the gloves and went at it in a high-powered bout with plenty of punches thrown.
Things calmed down after that but the Solar Bears push to get back into the game never wained. They piled up 18 shots in the final twenty minutes. The only one that got past Cooley came with 8.2 seconds remaining and Lackey pulled for an extra attacker. Tristin Langan sent a pass to Mark Auk at the point. He fired at the Florida net where it pinballed around and flopped past the goalie. Repaci was in the path of the shot and was credited with the goal for his hat trick, the first one by a Solar Bears player at the Amway Center since February of 2019 when Corey Kalk did it.
Once the final seconds ticked off, the Everblades headed off to prepare for Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs against South Carolina Monday night in North Charleston. As for the Solar Bears, they were left with wondering what went wrong and how do they retool things for the 21-22 season which is only four months away.
Notes: Final shots were 46-30 in favor of Orlando… The Everblades went 0-for-2 on the power play while the Solar Bears finished 0-for-4… Orlando ended up with a 20-13-3-0 record at home in 20-21 and 16-16-3-1 on the road… Florida’s Brabham Cup title was the first for the franchise since the 2017-18 season. Only one franchise, the Alaska Aces, has won more with five Brabham Cups in its history.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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