ORLANDO, FLA – For the better part of three seasons, the fans and staffs of the Florida Everblades and the Orlando Solar Bears have been hoping for an all-Sunshine State playoff Series. If Wednesday night’s meeting was any indication of how things will go, that wish might be better spent when it comes to Central Florida’s team.
Paced by the sniper-like shooting of Adam Brace and solid play from Matt Ginn between the pipes, the Everblades continued their rule of the ECHL’s East division with a 6-4 victory at the Amway Center. Florida’s win ended Orlando’s recent winning streak at three and kept the Solar Bears from putting more distance between them and the Elmira Jackals and Greenville Road Warriors in the race for fourth place. For the Everblades, it was their eighth win against their in-state rivals.
“We’ve played them with probably three different teams and they’ve had three different teams as well. If you don’t manage the puck and manage the game, you feed them and they’re dangerous,” Orlando head coach Vince Williams said about playing the Everblades. “If you look down the list of all of their players, they have some of the top scorers in the league. They’re where they are because they have a good hockey team.”
Max Clermont, who has been hot between the pipes for Orlando of late, got the start for the Solar Bears (31-22-4-3, 69 points) and looked good early. His best save came against Brace but the Florida forward won the next meeting when he snapped a shot over Clermont’s glove hand at the 10:31 mark of the opening period.
Ginn was sailing along in the first, making the saves he needed to while Orlando missed on several chances. With 12 seconds left in the frame, Stefan Della Rover sent the puck into the Florida end with Brady Vail in hot pursuit. Vail got to the puck and centered it where it bounced off a defender’s skate and into the net for the game-tying score with 2.4 ticks left on the clock.
Florida (41-13-2-4, 88 points) began to take control of the contest in the second. 2:05 into the frame, Alex Lavoie stole the puck in the Orlando end and beat Clermont again to the glove side. Four minutes later, Rob Florentino set up Ray Kaunisto in the slot for a quick wrist shot that found the back of the net to make it 3-1.
When Jordan Henry blasted a shot home from the boards to Clermont’s left at 12:27, the Everblades had a three goal cushion. Jake Cepis trimmed that back to two when he nailed a slap shot off Ginn shoulder and into the short side top corner at the 15:47 mark. Florida continued its hot shooting 29 seconds later when Mitch Wahl set up Brace for his second of the night to end the game to the third with the Everblades up 5-2.
“We started off well in the first. Then in the second for whatever reason (maybe) the energy coming off a long road trip or whatever it was, we just didn’t have it,” defenseman Eric Baier said. “Those things happen throughout the course of a season. We haven’t played like that in a while.”
The host Solar Bears came out with a fire under them in the final period. Baier took a feed from Peter Sivak at the point and fired a high shot that beat Ginn through a screen at the 5:28 mark. 51 ticks later, Brett Findlay converted the rebound of a shot by Eric Knodel to pull Orlando within 5-4.
It would prove to be as close as the Solar Bears would get. Brace returned the favor by setting up Wahl for an easy tap in with 8:18 left to restore a two-goal margin. The rest was left to Ginn who finished with 29 saves to record his second win in as many starts.
The Solar Bears will have a chance right away to get back on the winning track when they host the Gwinnett Gladiators Thursday night.
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