ESTERO, FLA – Hertz Arena in Estero is a difficult place for opponents of the Florida Everblades to play. Over the years, the home of the perennial South division power has been an intimidating place for visitors to come away with a victory.
And once again on the first Saturday in February, the squad from southwest Florida proved its dominance on home ice.
Powered by a three-goal second period, the host Everblades (13-5-0-1) ran their record to 5-0 at home on Saturdays by defeating the Orlando Solar Bears (9-7-1-0) by a final of 4-1 in front of a COVID-restricted crowd of 3,275. Four different Florida players scored a goal in support of goalie Devin Cooley, who made 30 saves and came within 1:38 of pitching a shutout.
Matthew Spencer had the lone goal for the Solar Bears, scoring with goalie Michael Lackey pulled for an extra attacker. Lackey, who picked up a win a week ago in Greenville, finished the night with 26 saves.
On the heels of Friday night’s intense Orlando win in a shootout, the Everblades wanted to get back at their in-state rival and end the three-game winning streak the squad from Central Florida had going on. Each side played their backup netminder and neither disappointed.
The goalies were the stars of the first twenty minutes of play. Both Lackey and Cooley came up with superlative saves when asked to during the opening frame. Lackey stopped all ten Florida shots while Cooley turned away all eight Orlando shots.
The Everblades took things up a notch in the middle stanza. Just 4:12 and with a delayed penalty coming on the Solar Bears, Hugo Roy took a pass at center ice from Luke Nogard and turned to skate into the Orlando defensive zone. With four defenders advancing on him, Roy skated to the top of the faceoff circle to Lackey’s left and lasered a wrist shot past the netminder’s catching glove for his first of the season since signing with Florida earlier in the week.
Moments later, Lackey was tested by Florida’s all-star defenseman Logan Roe who got loose for a breakaway. The Orlando rookie goalie made the stop to keep the game at 1-0.
Not too long after the big save, Lackey was not so lucky. The Everblades advanced into the Orlando end where the Solar Bears seemingly broke up the rush. Unfortunately for them, the puck hopped to Luke Nogard who spun around, skated to the circle to goalie right and beat a slightly overcommitted Lackey for his second of the season to make it 2-0 Florida.
The home team kept plugging and scored once more before the period ended. With 45 seconds remaining before the intermission, Levko Koper and John McCarron had themselves a two-on-one break. Koper drew the defense to him before sliding the puck to a wide open McCarron. McCarron picked the top corner to Lackey’s left side and buried it there for his ninth of the year and 100th goal as a member of the Everblades to give his team a commanding 3-0 lead after forty minutes.
Orlando came out hard in the third but Florida seemed to match them stride for stride. The Solar Bears had a pair of early power play chances but were not able to cash in. When they did have golden opportunities to break onto the scoreboard, Cooley calmly and cooly turned them aside, as both Dylan Sadowy and Chris LeBlanc experienced first hand.
The visitors finally broke Cooley’s shutout bid when with Lackey pulled for an extra skater, Aaron Luchuk took a pass off the boards in the Florida end and teed up Spencer for a one-time blast from the center of the blueline. With Cooley screened, he had no chance to make a stop before the puck went sailing past him for Spencer’s first of the season. The Everblades put the icing on the cake when Koper unselfishly set up Joe Pendenza for an empty net goal with 40 second remaining to complete the scoring.
For the second straight night, both teams came up empty on the power play with Orlando going 0-for-4 while Florida went 0-for-2.
Florida is off until Wednesday when it starts a three-game set with South Carolina up in North Charleston. Orlando will head back up to Greenville to take on the Swamp Rabbits in a three-game series that begins Thursday.
Notes: Orlando’s Kevin Lohan became the Orlando franchise’s eighth defenseman to play in 100 games Saturday night… With its win, Florida took a 7-2-0-1 lead in the season series against Orlando.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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