ORLANDO, FLA – Wearing a letter on your hockey jersey means you have earned the respect of the coaches you play for as well as the teammates you go to battle with every game. It means you are a leader and when things are tight, leaders step up and make big plays. Thursday night at the Amway Center, Orlando Solar Bears captain Chris LeBlanc showed for the second time in three games that the letter “C” on his jersey means something to him.
LeBlanc had a goal and two assists, the goal coming in overtime, to lift his Solar Bears (23-17-3-1) to a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (20-13-9-3) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,250. Teammate Aaron Luchuk notched a goal and two helpers of his own, extending his point streak to four games and taking the lead in goals, assists and points on the Orlando roster.
With the victory, the Solar Bears pulled closer to third-place Greenville in the ECHL’s Eastern conference standings. Orlando now trails the Swamp Rabbits by a points percentage margin of .010 (.578 for Greenville to Orlando’s .568). The two teams are being hotly trailed by South Carolina, which sits in fifth place with a point percentage of .548.
Coming off Tuesday night’s first game of a four-game mini-series this week that went to a shootout, Orlando felt it had some good momentum going while Greenville simply wanted to exact some revenge for Tuesday’s loss. Both goalies – Clint Windsor for Orlando and John Lethemon for Greenville – were asked to face down a power play early in the opening period, each making four saves.
The Swamp Rabbits, just as they had two days earlier, got on the board first. At the 12:34 mark of the first period, Max Zimmer dug the puck out of the corner behind Windsor and fed it to the slot. Nick Poehling, who had beaten a Solar Bears defender to the slot, was open and wired it home for his sixth goal of the season.
Orlando wanted to get to the first intermission with at least a tie and it did. Working on a power play in the latter stages of the frame, Nolan Valleau worked the puck to Luchuk who ripped a shot from the faceoff circle to Lethemon’s left. The goalie made the save but the rebound careened out to the opposite circle where rookie Kyle Topping stepped into a rocket that went past the goalie’s blocker side for Topping’s sixth and a 1-1 draw after one.
Luchuk, who was tied with Tristin Langan and the currently-injured Jake Coughler for the team lead in goals, took the top slot solo again just 40 ticks into the middle stanza. LeBlanc made the key pass, circling behind the Greenville net and skating up the far side. He found Luchuk in the high slot and Luchuk buried a bomb into the back of the cage for his 15th of the season to put the Solar Bears in front.
Greenville searched for an answer and found it with a little over seven minutes remaining in the period. After an offensive zone faceoff win, the Swamp Rabbits applied some pressure on the Solar Bears defense. The puck deflected behind the Orlando net where Patrick Bajkov and Matt Bradley did the dirty work to gain control. Bradley proceeded to hit Liam Pecararo who was alone at the base of the circle on the near side. As soon as the puck hit Pecararo’s blade, it was on its way past Windsor for his eighth goal of the season and a 2-2 tie.
The Swamp Rabbits faced a carryover penalty kill as the third period started and were successful at keeping the Solar Bears off the board. Shortly after, Bajkov went from the far side corner to the sideboards where he saw a passing lane to Eric Williams at the opposite point. Williams received the pass, skated in a couple of strides and from the faceoff circle nailed a wicked slapshot that beat Windsor for his first goal with Greenville to put the visitors up 3-2.
Try as they might, the Solar Bears were constantly being thwarted by Lethemon and the Swamp Rabbits defense. Finally, with just under four minutes left in regulation, Tyler took a pass from LeBlanc and flew up ice with Topping on a two-on-one break. Bird blew by a defender, turned the corner toward the net and tucked the puck just past Lethemon’s right skate and over the line for his 10th tally of the year. More importantly, it squared the scoreboard at 3-3, where it stayed until the final buzzer.
In the overtime, both goalies saw shots early. The second Greenville try was stopped by Windsor and kicked to Luchuk who immediately saw LeBlanc in the neutral zone. Luchuk sent the puck in that direction and got what he was hoping for when LeBlanc outraced Lethemon to it, drew the puck around the sliding netminder and sent it into the wide open net for the game-winner. For LeBlanc, it was his eighth of the season.
Both goalies played well as Lethemon stopped 29 of 33 Orlando shots in suffering the loss while Windsor made 35 saves on 38 Greenville shots to pick up his 13th win of the season.
The scene now changes to Greenville as the two teams will battle twice more to close out the week’s set of games. The Bon Secours Wellness Arena will be the setting on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3:05 p.m.
Notes: Orlando went 1-for-4 on the power play while Greenville went 0-for-4… LeBlanc’s three points gave him 116 career points with the Solar Bears, pushing him past Denver Manderson (113 points) into sole possession of second place on the franchise’s all-time points list… The win moved Orlando’s record against Greenville this season to 5-1-0-0… The Solar Bears have now played 12 games that have gone to either an overtime or a shootout. Their record in overtime games is 5-3… Orlando will be on the road for the next nine games. The next time the Solar Bears will be at the the Amway Center will be on Friday, April 30th against South Carolina.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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