ESTERO, FLA – The Orlando Solar Bears had an opportunity to avoid a first round playoff series with the Florida Everblades and send a message Saturday night at Germain Arena in the 2016-17 season finale for both teams. Instead it was the host Everblades who let their in-state rivals and the rest of the ECHL that they will be a force in the race for the Kelly Cup.
Brant Harris led nine players with multiple points and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic stopped all 20 shots he faced as Florida (46-21-2-3, 97 points) blasted Orlando (36-26-7-3, 82 points) 10-0 in front of an announced crowd of 7,703. Josh Wesley scored two goals and eight of his teammates lit the goal light once in the convincing victory.
The loss kept Orlando from having a shot to move into third place in the ECHL’s South division, allowing the South Carolina Stingrays to claim the spot and a first round playoff date with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits starting next week. Instead, the Solar Bears will meet the Everblades in a best-of-seven series that begins on Wednesday in Estero.
With several players sitting out because of injuries or to rest ahead of the playoffs, the Solar Bears were not at full strength and it showed. Rookie goalie Mitch Gillam got the start in net and he was under siege early as Florida struck for three goals in the opening twenty minutes.
A penalty to Orlando’s Chris Crane 1:25 into the first period led to the opening goal during an Everblades power play. The key pass came from Mitchell Heard who found Matt Berry in front and Berry jammed the disc past Gillam for his 24th goal of the season.
The lead doubled to two at the 11:25 mark when off of an odd-man rush, John McCarron fed Mike Aviani who sent a hard wrist into the top corner of the net on the goalie’s glove side for his fifth of the year. Late in the period, Wesley got open for a shot from the blueline that navigated traffic in front of Gillam and hit the back of the net for the defenseman’s eighth of the season and a commanding 3-0 lead. The tally was also the second man advantage goal for the home team.
It was more of the same for the Everblades in the second period as they smelled blood in the water, or in this case on the ice. Just 2:26 into the frame, Harris and Brendan O’Donnell worked a two-man game that created an odd man break. O’Donnell took a shot that Gillam stopped but Harris was there to convert the rebound for his 32nd scoreof the year.
Five minutes later, McCarron was the beneficiary of some puck luck as he put a shot on net that the Solar Bears netminder stopped but the rebound kicked off the skate of a defender and slid across the goal line for McCarron’s 24th goal. Another five minutes elapsed before Florida increased the lead to six when yet another power play turned into a score. This time some tic-tac-toe passing between Aviani and McCarron was finished off by Heard who buried a shot past Gillam for his sixth of the season.
With the score getting out of hand, tempers and nerves began to fray. At the 14:40 mark, a fight broke out between Orlando’s Mike Sgroi, who was called into service with the injuries, and Florida’s Kevin Raine. Sgroi ended up tangled with multiple Everblades and was tossed from the game with a continuing altercation misconduct. Before the next face-off could be conducted, Solar Bears defenseman Taylor Doherty began talking with the Florida bench, earning himself a misconduct penalty.
Cruising along with a six goal lead heading into the final frame, the Everblades went for the kill and got it with four more tallies. The first came at the 7:15 mark when Michael Kirkpatrick banged home the rebound of a shot by Raine for his 21st. Four minutes later, Wesley was back on the scoresheet when he blasted the puck past Gillam (29 saves) from the top of the right circle for his second of the game and an 8-0 cushion.
A little past the midpoint of the stanza, Orlando successfully killed off a penalty to Chase Witala. The problem was that eight seconds after Witala left the box, O’Donnell lasered a wrist shot over Gillam’s shoulder for his 41st goal of the season. Matt Hatch finished off the scoring and put the Everblades into double figures when he chased down the puck in the Solar Bears defensive end and fired it home for his fifth of the season.
After finishing the regular season with three straight meetings, the two bitter rivals will meet on Wednesday in Estero for game one of the second all-time best-of-seven playoff series between the squads. The first came in 2015 when Florida eliminated Orlando in six games with the Everblades winning the series in a contest that went to overtime. Game time at Germain Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.
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