ORLANDO, FLA – No team in the ECHL has a more explosive offense than the Florida Everblades. Give them a reason to be angry and the explosion can be catastrophic for the opposition. Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center, the blast came early and the host Orlando Solar Bears never recovered.
Led by two goals from Blake Winiecki and multi-point nights from five others, the visiting Everblades (7-2-0-0) pulled away in the first period and never looked as they throttled Orlando (4-3-0-0) by a final of 7-1 in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,250. Six different Florida players had at least one goal as a top-to-bottom scoring attack allowed Florida to sweep a back-to-back set of contests.
The game featured the Everblades scoring three power play goals in a span of 1:45 in the first period. It also had the usual Everblades-Solar Bears nastiness, including a third period brawl that saw Orlando goalie Clint Windsor throw down with Florida tough guy Kyle Neuber, earning both players an early shower.
Nobody quite knew what to expect after Saturday’s convincing 4-0 whitewashing of the Solar Bears by the Everblades. Things seemed pretty tame for the first nine minutes of the opening frame. That’s when the afternoon began to unravel for the home team.
Just shy of the midpoint of the period, Florida got on the board. Lukas Craggs took the puck away from the Solar Bears in the corner and sent it up high to defenseman Cody Sol. Using some traffic in front of Windsor as a screen, he fired away and it sailed past the netminder for Sol’s first of the season at 9:30.
A little over two minutes later, Orlando’s Jake Coughler, who was playing in his first game after coming off the injured reserve list, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the end of a scramble in front of Florida goalie Devin Cooley, Coughler’s stick came up and caught the netminder under the mask. It drew blood, putting Coughler in the penalty box for four minutes. Midway through the first minor, Orlando was nabbed for too many men on the ice, giving the Everblades a two-man advantage for one minute and 14 seconds. All it took was some tic-tac-toe passing and 22 seconds for Myles Powell to set up Michael Huntebrinker for a one-timer that went between Windsor’s legs for Huntebrinker’s fifth of the year.
The score cut Coughler’s penalty down to the second minor but kept the five-on-three in tact. Again the Everblades cashed in when Alex Kile made a cross-ice pass to Powell who blasted his fourth of the season home to make it 3-0. Now down to a five-on-four, Florida stuck the dagger in deeper when Winiecki redirected a slap pass from Kile in for his fourth to stretch the lead to 4-0.
Down by four with two full frames to play, the Solar Bears tried to ramp up their offense. Aided by a couple of power plays, Orlando was able to run up 14 shots on net but Everblades goalie Cam Johnson, who had replaced Cooley in the first when he was injured, had all the answers. His highlight sequence came when during a Solar Bears man advantage, he dove to his right to deny Orlando’s Jerry D’Amigo who was trying desperately to bang home a loose puck near the backside post.
As the frame wound down, Orlando’s Ben Thomson caught a Florida player from behind and knocked him into the boards. That led the Everblades’ Sol to jump in and start pounding away on Thomson. Thomson was given a boarding major and a game misconduct while Sol received a fighting major and a game misconduct for being the aggressor in a fight.
Life got even more difficult for the home team in the third. Down low on a two-man forecheck, Huntebrinker dug the puck out of the corner and snapped a pass across the low slot to a wide open Winiecki who snapped it past Windsor for his second of the night to push the lead to 5-0.
Less than a minute later, all heck broke loose near the player benches. While everyone was paying attention to that, Neuber and Windsor began jawing at each other. The two then squared off in a battle that saw the goalie get his licks in during a lively fight that had the crowd buzzing. Both Neuber and Windsor were given the gate, forcing Orlando backup goalie Michael Lackey in between the pipes to finish the contest.
The Everblades ended up with an extra penalty, putting the Solar Bears on the power play. Florida made the best of the situation when John McCarron and Levko Koper broke away on a two-on-none. McCarron set up Koper who hit the post but in the ensuing scramble, McCarron was able to slide the loose puck into the back of the net for his third of the year
Orlando did finally get on the scoreboard at the 11:18 mark when Aaron Luchuk won an offensive zone faceoff back to Coughler who whipped a quick wrister past Johnson’s catching glove for his first. In the final minutes, Florida’s Tommy Marchin finished off the scoring, taking a cross-ice feed from Kile and beating Lackey for his first with 1:22 remaining.
Florida’s Johnson made 26 saves to pick up the victory in relief of Cooley who stopped all six shots he faced before getting hurt. Orlando’s Windsor took the loss, turning away 18 in his 47:26 of action while Lackey made five saves on seven shots faced.
The Everblades are off until Wednesday when the host the Jacksonville Icemen at Hertz Arena at 7 p.m. The Solar Bears hit the ice next on Friday when Florida makes a return visit to the City Beautiful for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
Notes: Final shots were 33-30 in favor of Orlando… The Everblades finished 3-for-6 on the power play while the Solar Bears went 0-for-5… Florida’s Kile led all scorers with four assists while teammates Powell (1 goal, 2 assists), Lukas Craggs (two assists), McCarron (1 goal, 1 assist) and Huntebrinker (2 assists) all had multi-point nights… Sunday was Orlando Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky’s 49 birthday.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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