ORLANDO, FLA – With less than a dozen games left in the 2020-21 ECHL regular season, the drama is thick in the air as each and every game drops the puck. That certainly was the case at the Amway Center Friday night when the Orlando Solar Bears began a crucial three-game weekend series with the South Carolina Stingrays.
And as advertised, the contest came down to the final seconds before a winner was decided.
Orlando (32-24-5-1) scored once in each period and leaned on goalie Clint Windsor for 33 saves to secure a 3-2 win over the visiting Stingrays (27-22-10-3) in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 2,215. Jerry D’Amigo, Joe Garreffa and captain Chris LeBlanc each scored once with LeBlanc’s proved to be the game-winner after a rather furious comeback attempt by South Carolina, which scored both of its tallies in the final frame.
The win improved Orlando’s points percentage to .565, keeping the Solar Bears in the fourth and final post-season spot. They are still within range to catch third place Indy (.575) but more importantly put a little bit of distance between themselves and both South Carolina and Jacksonville, each of them sitting at .540 in a tie for fifth but well situated to leapfrog Orlando.
The importance of the contest played itself out in a tight, defensive first period that featured the netminders. Windsor, who was looking for his 20th win of the season for the Solar Bears, and the Stingrays’ Hunter Shepard, just back from AHL Hershey, went back and forth making save after save and keeping the fans on the edge of their seats.
The was only one goal scored in the opening frame and it belonged to the home team. Solar Bears forward Nikita Pavlychev, just back on reassignment from AHL Syracuse, gained control of the puck in the Stingrays end and began to curl toward the slot. He eventually found room to send a backhander toward the net where D’Amigo redirected it past Shepard for his 10th goal of the season.
At the start of the middle frame, the Stingrays had a chance to tie things up when captain Andrew Cherniwchan got loose and in on Windsor. The one-on-one confrontation was won by the Orlando netminder when he flashed his catching glove to snare Cherniwchan’s shot out of mid-air.
Just like the opening stanza, there was just one shot that lit the goal light and the Solar Bears got it. At the 12:11 mark, Garreffa took a setup from Michael Joly and tickled the twine behind Shepard for his 11th of the year, giving Orlando a 2-0 lead that it held into the second intermission.
Knowing they were running low on time, the Stingrays began their comeback attempt early in the third. Just 46 seconds in, Brett Supinski was in the right place near the Orlando cage to find a loose puck and after several whacks force it across the goal line for his 12th tally of the season to make it 2-1.
The Solar Bears got that score right back just over three minutes alter. The Orlando power play, which came into Friday’s game on a seven-game dry spell, finally clicked when LeBlanc was able to convert the rebound of his own shot for his 12th of the season. Joly and Aaron Luchuk got the assists on the play but more importantly the home team’s lead was back up to two at 3-1.
Orlando’s defense faced a big moment near the midpoint of the final frame when overlapping penalties left the Solar Bears down two men for 49 seconds. The home team buckled down and held off the advances by the Stingrays.
The penalty kill became even more important when at the 14:01 mark, South Carolina sniper Cole Ully whipped a shot high over Windsor’s glove hand for his team-leading 21st goal of the year, again trimming the Orlando lead to one.
South Carolina applied a ton of pressure on Orlando over the course of the final six minutes after Ully’s score. The Stingrays, including the goal, recorded the final eight shots of the contest but Windsor stopped all seven after the goal to put the contest in the win column.
The Stingrays’ Shepard played well enough to win, stopping 38 of Orlando’s 41 shots in the game but coming away with the loss.
The two teams will meet again Saturday night at the Amway Center at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 3 p.m.
Notes: South Carolina finished 0-for-3 on the power play while Orlando went 1-for-2… With his 20th victory, Windsor joined Garret Sparks (21 wins in 2014-15) and Ryan Massa (22 in 2016-17) as the only three Solar Bears netminders to win 20 or more in a single season… LeBlanc’s game-winner was his 6th of the season, tying him with TJ Foster (2015-16) and Jake Cepis (2013-14, 2014-15) for most in a single season. It was also his 9th career winner as a Solar Bear, putting him ahead of Scott Tanski and Patrick Watling into second place on the franchise’s all-time list… Orlando’s Kevin Lohan played in his 135th game as a Solar Bear Friday night. It moved him past Brady Vail into fifth on the team’s all-time list for most games played… Orlando improved its record against South Carolina to 7-4-0-0 this season with the victory.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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