ORLANDO, FLA – Halfway through Saturday night’s ECHL game between the South Carolina Stingrays and the Orlando Solar Bears, the host Solar Bears held a 4-2 lead and things looked very much in favor of a victory. Little did any of the 3,132 fans in attendance at the Amway Center know at the time but that confidence was about to come unraveled. 
South Carolina (28-22-10-3) scored three unanswered goals spanning the late second period into the early stages of the third to grab a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Orlando (32-25-5-1). Former Solar Bears Max Novak netted the game-winner less than five minutes into the final frame and Stingrays goalie Hunter Shepard held the fort the rest of the way, collecting 31 saves to earn his first win since being assigned to South Carolina earlier last week.
Michael Joly, Anthony Repaci, J.J. Piccinich and Matthew Spencer each bagged a goal for the Solar Bears. Michael Lackey, playing for the first time since April 30th in net, made 30 saves in an admirable effort.
The loss did not do any damage to Orlando’s positioning in the Eastern conference standings. The Solar Bears remained in fourth place, but the margin between them and the fifth-place Stingrays shrunk to .008 (.556 for Orlando, .548 for South Carolina). The Solar Bears also lost a little ground in the race to move up to third as Indy, which beat Rapid City Saturday night, saw its hold on third expand to .026 (.582 to .556). Playoff seedings are being determined by points percentage this season.
The pace of scoring in Saturday’s game was fast from the outset. Just 4:37 into the first period, Joly got his hands on the puck in the South Carolina end. He drove to the net, made a couple of moves and proceeded to deposit the puck into the cage over a sprawled Shepard for his 15th goal of the season and 7th as a Solar Bear. Initially the score was listed as unassisted but later Aaron Luchuk and Tristin Langan were credited with assists.
The Stingrays responded a little under three minutes later. During a penalty kill, Novak fed the puck to Dan DeSalvo who danced his way into the Orlando defensive zone. When he got into range, DeSalvo whipped a shot into the top right corner of the net past Lackey for his 16th goal of the year and third shorty.
The tie score did not last long. Seconds after the Stingrays killed off the penalty and 32 ticks after the DeSalvo tally, Solar Bears forward Anthony Repaci collected the rebound of an Alex Kuqali shot that had been blocked and banged it home. For Repaci, it was his 8th of the season and put Orlando back in front at 2-1.
The lead for the Solar Bears became two 5:20 into the second frame. Piccinich did the honors, firing a long shot that split the gap between Shepard’s legs for his 11th of the season and 50th professional goal (29 of them coming in a Solar Bears jersey). Mark Auk and Chris LeBlanc picked up the assists on the tally that put the home team into a 3-1 advantage.
The visitors closed the gap 3:13 later when Tim Harrison got the puck to Dylan Steman at the corner of the net. Steman was able to jam it through Lackey’s legs for his 14th tally of the year and again cut the deficit to one.
It took 36 seconds for the Solar Bears to reestablish their two-goal lead. Defenseman Matthew Spencer picked up his 7th goal of the season when his shot through traffic found the back of the net. Nolan Valleau and Tyler Bird got the helpers on the play.
From that point on, the game fell into the control of the Stingrays. On an ensuing power play, Justin Florek cleaned up the rebound of a shot by Cole Ully with a backhander over Lackey for his 15th of the year to make it 4-3. Before the period ended, Mark Cooper netted his 9th of the 20-21 campaign to even the score heading into the final twenty minutes of regulation.
Four minutes and change into the third, Orlando was faced with a penalty kill. Just 12 seconds into the advantage, Novak took a feed from Ully at the point and launched a rocket toward the Orlando net. With a ton of traffic in front, Lackey never saw the puck until it was behind him. For Novak, it was his 7th of the year and proved to be the game-winner.
Over the final fifteen minutes of play, Orlando outshot South Carolina 8-2 including a stretch of five in a row in a span of less than five minutes of play. Shepard was determined to get the win and was rock solid when he had to be to get the job done as the Stingrays held on.
The two teams will finish their weekend set of games Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center starting at 3 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were even at 35… The Stingrays went 2-for-4 on the power play while the Solar Bears were 0-for-3… With his assist on Piccinich’s goal, Orlando’s Mark Auk picked up his 30th assist with the Solar Bears, setting a new team mark for most helpers in a single season. The previous mark was 29, set by Michael Brodzinski during the 2018-19 season… The Solar Bears are now 7-5-0-0 against the Stingrays this season.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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