ORLANDO, FLA – The Orlando Solar Bears headed into Thursday night’s huge head-to-head matchup with the South Carolina Stingrays knowing one thing: a regulation time win would all but lock up the fourth and final Eastern conference playoff spot. Through the first twelve minutes plus of play, it looked like the Solar Bears had the will to come away with that victory.
And then in a span of one minute and 36 seconds, the roof caved in.
The visiting Stingrays (33-23-10-3) used that first period surge, the front half of six unanswered goals, to blast the Solar Bears (36-27-6-1) by a final of 6-2 in front of an announced crowd of 3,132 at the Amway Center. South Carolina captain Andrew Cherniwchan led the way with a goal and two assists while Cole Ully and Justin Florek netted two goals apiece as the Stingrays won their sixth straight game.
Aaron Luchuk and Anthony Repaci scored the goals for Orlando, which saw its three game winning streak busted at the worst possible time. Goalie Clint Windsor had an off night for the Solar Bears, allowing five goals on 37 shots in nearly 43 minutes of playing time before he was replaced by backup Michael Lackey.
The loss by the Solar Bears allowed South Carolina to leapfrog into the final playoff position. Going into the game, Orlando held a slim lead in points percentage (.572 for Orlando to .566 for South Carolina). After Thursday’s battle, the Stingrays moved up to the .572 percentage while the Solar Bears dropped .564. What that all means is that in order for Orlando to head to the postseason, it needs three out of a possible four points in the team’s final two regular season games against Jacksonville and Florida and for Jacksonville to take down South Carolina on Saturday in the Stingrays final contest of the season. Orlando can also steal back the final spot by winning both of its games while South Carolina loses to the Icemen either in overtime or a shootout.
The initial 12:26 of elapsed time in the first period was what everyone expected. Both teams were hungry to land a knockout punch early but the netminders had other ideas. Windsor and South Carolina goalie Hunter Shepard were nothing short of brilliant, matching save for save with great positioning and finely tuned instincts.
The first salvo against the scoreboard came at the 12:29 mark of the first. Luchuk, fresh off being named to the All-ECHL First team earlier in the day, redirected a shot/pass from Michael Spencer, the ECHL Player of the Week for last week, past Shepard for his 28th goal of the season, tying Tristin Langan for the team lead,
It took South Carolina just 30 seconds to respond in a big way. At 12:59, Brett Supinski took a feed from Caleb Herbert and went for a backhanded wraparound that Windsor just couldn’t to quick enough. For Supinski, it was his 15th goal of the year and only the beginning of a long night for the home team.
Sixty-three ticks later, Cherniwchan set up Florek for his version of Supinski’s tally. Florek went for a wraparound from behind the Solar Bears cage and jammed the puck home for his 17th and a lead that the Stingrays would not let get away.
Then 33 seconds beyond Florek’s score, the Stingrays put on some extended pressure. It led to Cherniwchan putting the puck on the stick of Ully in the slot. Ully wasted little time in unloading a shot that singed the twine behind Windsor for Ully’s 23rd tally of the season and a 3-1 South Carolina lead.
The outburst took the winds out of the sails of the fans in the stands as well as the Solar Bears players. After Luchuk’s goal, they recorded just two more shots in the frame in what was a sign of how the rest of the night would go.
The second period was much quieter on the scoreboard but not on the shot clock. South Carolina knew it had Orlando on the ropes and continued to unload a barrage of shots on Windsor. The Solar Bears netminder recovered for the opening frame, standing up to 17 more Stingrays shots, stopping all but one of them.
The one that got past came on a South Carolina power play in the back half of the middle stanza. Ully did the damage, wiring a shot past Windsor for his second of the game and 24th goal of the season. Assists on the score went to Tyler Nanne and one-time Solar Bear Max Novak.
The end of the period got a bit rough but the linesmen were able to keep things under control. It led to the final frame where Florek picked up his second of the night and 18th of the year when he poked the puck in at the side of the post. There was some question whether the puck went in but video review ultimately upheld the goal.
The fifth South Carolina score was the end of the night for Windsor as Orlando Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky put backup Michael Lackey in to finish up. He did well, stopping 9 of 10 shots, the lone goal coming from Cherniwchan who picked Luchuk’s pocket, drove the middle of the slot and whipped home his 21st of the year at 16:05.
Anthony Repaci finished off the scoring 32 seconds later when he took a pass from Kevin Lohan down low and jammed the puck past Shepard, who finished with 23 saves on the night. For Repaci, it was his ninth of the season.
The Solar Bears will practice at home before heading up to Jacksonville for a rematch with the Icemen, who were pushed out of the playoff race by Orlando on Tuesday. Game time at the Vystar Veterand Memorial Arena is set for 7 p.m.
Notes: Final shots were 47-25 in favor of South Carolina. It matched the season high for shots allowed this season, equaling the 47 allowed to Florida on January 16th… The Stingrays went 1-for-2 on the power play while the Solar Bears were 0-for-2… Luchuk and Tristin Langan both extended their point streaks to five games… Orlando finished the season series with South Carolina with a 8-6-0-0 record.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow us on Twitter @prohockeynews
You must be logged in to post a comment.