NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – With the 2016-17 ECHL regular season down to its final days, almost every game has playoff implications. Friday night at the North Charleston Coliseum, the South division had arguably its most important game featuring two teams battling for their post-season lives and seedings. By the time the ice chips settled, it was the visiting team that had the upper hand.
Mason Marchment, who just over a week ago was playing in the AHL, scored two goals including the game winner as the Orlando Solar Bears (35-24-6-3, 79 points) took a huge step toward a return to the Kelly Cup playoffs with a 4-3 win over the host South Carolina Stingrays (36-29-3-1, 76 points) in front of an announced crowd of 3,332. Joe Perry added a goal and two assists of his in supports of goalie Ryan Massa who won his 20th game of the season, tying the ECHL franchise record held by Garret Sparks.
With four games remaining on the schedule, the Solar Bears pulled three points ahead of the Stingrays for third place in the division – which would earn Orlando a first round date with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. By virtue of Cincinnati’s loss to Fort Wayne, the Solar Bears saw their magic number to lock up a post-season berth fall to four. South Carolina remained in fourth place, two points ahead of the Cyclones.
South Carolina had an opportunity to blow the game open before the first period was five minutes old with a pair of power play chances. Massa had to be ready early, making the first of many key saves when he robbed Kelly Zajac with a right pad save as the Stingrays sniper fired from in close.
When the second advantage was cut short by an overlapping penalty, the teams played at 4-on-4 which gave the Solar Bears a chance to use its speed and hustle. Rookie Tony Cameranesi was able to dig the puck out along the boards in the South Carolina defensive zone and zipped a pass to the right circle where Marchment grabbed it and lasered a shot past the glove hand of Stingrays netminder Parker Milner for his 10th of the season.
A little past the midpoint of the frame, the Solar Bears,who were already playing without Austin Block and Brenden Miller, took another hit when defenseman Daniel Maggio was hit in the neutral zone and went down hard. It appeared that his head the ice hard, knocking him out for a bit and requiring the medical staff to stretcher him off the ice. As he was wheeled off and taken to a local hospital, he was seen moving his arms, which was a good sign to all.
Late in the frame, the Solar Bears were able to double their lead when Eric Faille took a pass from Perry and circled behind the South Carolina net, getting off a backhanded wraparound shot that pinballed past Milner for the big winger’s 26th goal of the season.
The home team needed a response and got it with just 21.8 seconds left before the intermission. Driving into the Orlando end on an odd-man rush, Kevin Dufourfired a shot that Massa stopped but the rebound fell off to the side in the crease. Following up on the shot, Dufour got to the loose disc first and jammed it home for his first goal of the season.
Orlando came out hard in the second and nearly saw its lead go back to two when a drive by Marchment beat the Stingrays goalie but the puck hit the post and kicked away. Milner was not so luck soon after when Faille and Perry played a two-man game that ended with Faille saucering a backhand pass to Perry who put the puck in the back of the net for his team-leading 34th at the 3:23 mark.
Nine minutes into the stanza, Perry was whistled for hooking, giving the Stingrays an opportunity to cut the lead with a power play score. It took the hosts 58 seconds of man advantage time to cash in when Olivier Archambault put a perfect pass on the stick of Joe Devin who rifled it past Massa for his 14th of the season.
Down by just one, the Stingrays put some serious pressure on Massa and the short-handed Solar Bears defense early in the third but the second year netminder was equal to the task. South Carolina’s momentum seemed to take a hit when Devin went to the penalty box at the 5:11 mark but it was the Stingrays who converted when John Parker blocked a shot and sent Andrew Cherniwchan away on a clean breakout. Cherniwchan got in close and was able to put a backhander into the back of the net for his 11th of the year and seemingly a back-breaking tally for the Solar Bears.
The teams went back and forth for almost seven minutes before Marchment, the son of former NHL player Bryan Marchment, played the role of hero for the visitors. Chris Crane, who had two assists in the contest, made a pass from along the boards to Marchment who ripped a shot past Milner’s glove hand for the second time in the game.
Marchment’s 11th goal of the season would prove to be more than enough for Massa, who withstood several South Carolina opportunities down the stretch. One of his best among the eleven saves he made in the final period came at the expense of Devin who thought he had tied the contest only to see Massa smother the shot.
Massa finished the game, his tenth consecutive start, with 29 saves to earn the victory while Milner made 28 saves in suffering the loss.
The two teams will conclude their season series Sunday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. at the North Charleston Coliseum.
Notes: Perry collected five shots in the game to set a new franchise record for most shots on net in a season. Perry’s 204 shots eclipsed the mark set of 199 by Ryan Cruthers back in 2012-13… Orlando’s power play went 0-for-3 in the contest while South Carolina finished the night 1-for-3… Several Solar Bears extended consecutive game point streaks including Marchment (3 games), Cameranesi (4 games), Crane (3 games) and Faille (5 games).
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