ORLANDO, FLA – The Florida Everblades have certainly seen their share of the likes of Aaron Luchuk, Tristin Langan, Michael Joly, Mark Auk and the rest of the Orlando Solar Bears during the 2020-21 ECHL regular season because of the offense they provided. Saturday night however, when the host Solar Bears needed a win badly, there were two more players added to the list that the Everblades have to be worried about.
Matthew Spencer and Nikita Pavlychev.
Spencer had a career night with a goal and two assists while Pavlychev added a goal and an assist of his own to lead Orlando (34-26-6-1) to a 6-4 victory over Florida (40-19-3-3) in front of an announced crowd of 3,132 at the Amway Center. Eleven different Solar Bears had at least one point in the contest while rookie goalie Michael Lackey made 37 saves to pick up his first home in since March 6th.
The victory allowed Orlando to keep pace with the South Carolina Stingrays, who also won on Saturday. The two teams are tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in the ECHL’s Eastern conference with a week left in the season. The Solar Bears, who hold the tie-breaker of having the most regulation time wins (26-23), would fill the final spot if the playoffs started on Sunday.
The contest was quite a contrast from Friday’s meeting in that after a game with a grand total of five goals the night before, Saturday’s tilt had two periods with five goals each and a very quiet frame stuck in the middle. The opening period began with a bit of controversy when it appeared that Orlando’s J.J. Piccinich had scored when he redirected a shot from the point homeless than a minute in. Unfortunately for the home team, the referee immediately waived it off saying that Piccinich’s stick was above the crossbar.
Not too long after, the scoring that was ruled legal began. At the 1:58 mark, Florida’s Marcus Vela was in front to convert the rebound of a drive by Colby Sissons for his fourth goal of the season. Vela put in a full effort, extending himself off his skates to make sure his stick reached the puck to pop it past Lackey.
With the wakeup call issued, Orlando went to work. The Solar Bears began a three-goal outburst at 4:21 when shortly after killing off a penalty to Anthony Repaci, Jerry D’Amigo had the puck in the slot and sent it the faceoff circle to Michael Joly. Joly made a bull rush to the net, cutting across the top of the crease and tucking it past Everblades netminder Jake Hildebrand for his 18th of the season and 10th with Orlando.
Just under three minutes later, Spencer and Pavlychev started their big nights. Just like they had a night before, the pair combined to put the puck in the cage on a power play. Pavlychev was in the right place at the right time when Spencer went to the cage and set up his teammate for a redirect into the net for Pavlychev’s fourth goal of the year and second in as many nights to put Orlando in front.
Three minutes and change after Pavlychev’s tally, Joe Garreffa netted arguably the prettiest goal of the night. Picking up the loose puck after a Florida defensive zone turnover, Garreffa left an Everblades defender in his wake, played the puck between the legs of a second and fired to the wide side to beat Hildebrand for his 12th of the year and third with the Solar Bears.
Trying not to get run out of the building, the Everblades hit the scoreboard one more time before the first frame was done. Late in the period, Myles Powell and Joe Pendenza broke out on a two-on-one attack. After drawing Lackey to his side, Powell beat a defenseman with a pass that found Pendenza with a wide open side of the net to score his 18th of the season to make it 3-2 after twenty minutes.
Following a scoreless, one penalty middle stanza, the attack on both goalies reignited in the third. Just 28 seconds in, Orlando’s Auk put a shot/pass on the tape of teammate Tyler Bird at the crease. Bird calmly tipped it into the open side for his 15th goal to bump the lead back to two at 4-2.
The Everblades refused to go away, trimming the lead in half at 3:03 when Hugo Roy redirected a shot by Logan Roe between Lackey’s legs for his eighth of the year to make it 4-3.
The Solar Bears said not so fast midway through the period with its second power play goal of the game. At the 10:47 mark, Spencer and Luchuk played a little pitch and catch that eventually lined up Spencer for a shooting lane. With plenty of traffic in front, Spencer launched a bomb that found its way into the net for Spencer’s eighth tally of the year and first man advantage score of the season.
Florida was still hanging around and once again pulled within one. At the 15:05 mark, Alex Kile put a shot on net that Lackey stopped. Everblades captain John McCarron dug out the rebound and slid it across the crease to a wide open Blake Winiecki. Winiecki slid the puck into the open side for his 18th goal of the season, making it 5-4 and giving Solar Bears fans cause for concern.
The concern was put to rest when with Hildebrand (35 saves) on the bench for an extra attacker, Langan got control of the puck in his own end level with the faceoff dot and scaled it down the ice. Langan’s accuracy was perfect as the puck was nearly dead center on the cage, giving him his 26th of the year – which tied Luchuk for the team lead – and the victory-clinching tally.
The win gave the Solar Bears a 9-12-3-1 record against the Everblades. Orlando will go for victory number 10 against its arch-rival Sunday afternoon at the Amway Center at 3 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 41-41… Florida was 0-for-1 on the power play while Orlando went 2-for-5… With a pair of assists, Luchuk reached the 70-point plateau for the season. It tied him with Eric Faille (2016-17) for most points in a single season for the Solar Bears franchise. Luchuk’s 44 assists also established a new franchise record for helper in a single campaign… Both Pavlychev (3 games) and Joly (6 games) extended their current individual point streaks.
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