ORLANDO, FLA – Sometimes a sports team has problems playing against a particular opponent. For whatever reason, one team always seems to have an advantage. Then there are times when an individual player has the number of his or her opponent.
Florida Everblades captain John McCarron appears to have the Orlando Solar Bears sized up well and has the ability to leave the boys from Central Florida asking themselves how they can stop him.
Friday night at the Amway Center, McCarron scored two goals, one shorthanded and the other the game-winner in overtime, to lead the Everblades (40-18-3-3) to a 3-2 victory over the host Solar Bears (33-26-6-1) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,250. McCarron’s extra time score deflated a third period comeback by Orlando, which got goals from Nikita Pavlychev and Tristin Langan – Langan’s coming with 51.5 seconds remaining in regulation – that tied the score and sent the game into overtime.
The loss, which earned the Solar Bears a point, combined with South Carolina’s 1-0 win over Wheeling, put Orlando and the Stingrays into a tie for the fourth and final playoff spot in the ECHL’s Eastern conference. Orlando currently holds the tie-breaker on most wins in regulation time (25) to South Carolina’s 22.
McCarron’s winner was a classic three-on-three overtime tally. After the Solar Bears missed at one end, the Stingrays raced back with an odd-man rush. Alex Kyle did most of the work, stretching around a defender to make a pass to McCarron who steered the puck up and over Orlando netminder Clint Windsor for his 30th goal of the season – a new career high – and sending the Solar Bears and their fans home feeling less satisfied than they wanted to be.
The first two periods of Friday’s contest were frustrating for the Solar Bears to say the least. Florida goalie Devin Cooley was the primary cause of the angst as he was playing lights out hockey. In the opening frame, Cooley turned away 16 Orlando shots on net. He nearly matched that by stopping all 14 Solar Bears shots that were sent his way.
His teammates rewarded Cooley with a goal in each stanza. In the first, the Everblades worked the puck to Stefan Leblanc who was just inside the offensive blueline. Alex Kile picked that point to curl into the high slot where Leblanc slid him a pass. Working with a ton of space and a screen in front, Kile whipped a shot that beat Windsor to the glove side for his 23rd goal of the season.
In the middle stanza, the Solar Bears had a loose moment with the puck during a power play and it was costly. The puck fell into the hands of Ben Masella who sent McCarron and Levko Koper away on an odd-man rush. Koper drew the defenseman to his side before feeding McCarron for a cross in front of the Orlando cage. McCarron took the pass on his backhand, shifted to his forehand as he flashed across Windsor’s face and went high glove side for his 29th of the season to make it 2-0 heading to the final period.
The score stayed static through the front half of the third stanza until Orlando finally got on the board. It came during a power play created by a high sticking call against Florida’s Kile when Pavlychev was in the right place to redirect a shot by Matthew Spencer past Cooley for his third goal of the season. The man advantage tally was a sight for sore eyes as it was just the Solar Bears second man-up goal in eleven games (the last coming on May 21st against South Carolina).
The Solar Bears continued to press for the equalizer but had no luck, forcing Orlando Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky to pull Windsor for an extra attacker with less than two minutes remaining. With less than a minute to go, the home team brought the crowd to its feet when Langan took a feed below the goalline and tried to send it to teammate Jerry D’Amigo at the crease. The puck veered off course and hit Cooley, sending it careening into the net, giving Langan his 25th lamp-lighter of the year and sending the game into the extra period.
In overtime, Florida quickly a scoring chance when Kile fired on Windsor who made a save. The puck then changed ends and Cooley denied an opportunity for Orlando’s Mark Auk. The final sequence started with a big save by Cooley on Spencer before Kile and McCarron sped the other way and McCarron ended the game at 1:59.
Neither Windsor nor Cooley deserved to lose in the game. Cooley came away with the victory by making 41 saves on 43 shots faced. At the other end, Windsor was just as good, stopping 35 of 38 Florida opportunities and keeping his team in the game all night long.
The two teams will meet for round two of their three-game weekend set Saturday night at the Amway Center with puck drop set for 7 p.m.
Notes: Florida went 0-for-4 on the power play while Orlando got just the Pavlychev score in six chances with the man advantage… By virtue of playing on Friday, Windsor became the Solar Bears all-time ECHL franchise leader in career games played between the pipes. Friday was Windsor’s 79th regular season appearance, pushing him ahead of Ryan Massa who saw action in 78 career contests… With an assist on Langan’s goal, Michael Joly pushed his points streak to five games (3 goals, 3 assists)… Orlando is now 8-12-3-1 against the Everblades with three more meetings this season.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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