ECHL Hockey is back in the postseason, with Friday night’s game one of a best-of-seven for the South Division Quarter Finals. The South Carolina Stingrays and the Orlando Solar Bears will meet in the Low Country of Charleston, South Carolina. These teams faced off for the first game of the regular season, the start of this series will be their ninth time meeting, with the Stingrays leading 4-3. These are two teams that have constantly fought hard against each other, with half of their matches ending with a two-goal differential.
This is the Stingrays’ 28th time heading to the Kelly Cup Playoffs, and they finished their season with a couple of milestones. The Stingrays have already won the Brabham Cup for being this season’s points champion, ending the regular season at 109 points. Shattering the franchise record set in 2017-2018. The Rays come into the finals with 52 wins, 15 losses, three overtime losses, and two shootout losses, giving them a 72.2 win percentage. Their season closed out with a 16-game winning streak, ended by the Swamp Rabbits in the last game of regular play, a considerable difference from the 2023-24 season, where the Rays failed to make the playoffs.
The Orlando Solar Bears are heading into the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the seventh time in franchise history. The Solar Bears finished the regular season ranked 13th in the league with 37 wins, 25 losses, 10 overtime losses, and zero shootout losses, giving them a 51.4 win percentage. The Solar Bears’ last Kelly Cup finals went in sitting in ninth and made it past the fifth-ranked Swamp Rabbits to battle for the Southern Division Championship.
The glaring differences in these teams are that the South Carolina Stingrays have six players with over 20 goals this season and another six in double digits. In comparison, Orlando only has three players with over 20 goals and five in the double digits. Both teams are in the same orbit for some Power Play aspects. South Carolina sat at 23.2% and Orlando at 17.3% for PP, with South Carolina seeing 228 opportunities to score while the Bears saw 243. However, South Carolina dominated with the chances they did have, taking 53 goals compared to Orlando’s 42. The PK is where the teams will fight the hardest, though, both teams come into the playoffs with a .6 difference in PKs. The Rays had 85.9% of the 241, and the Bears had 85.3% of the 252 challenges they faced.
Last year, the Kansas City Mavericks were our regular-season champions, and the Florida Everblades were our Kelly Cup defending champions. It was the first time in many years that South Carolina did not make it to the postseason. Instead, they cut their losses, firing Brenden Kotyk and bringing in Jared Nightingale. Orlando took down their first-round opponents, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, to make it to the South Division Finals, kept pace, and ended up in the jaws of the Everblades as they headed to the Kelly Cup finals, taking down the 2024 Brabham Cup champs, the Kansas City Mavericks.
The Stingrays and Solar Bears play the first two of seven games in Charleston on the 18th and 19th. Then, they will travel to Orlando to play games three and four on the 21st and 23rd. Game five is scheduled for the 24th in Orlando if needed, and games six and seven are scheduled for the 27th and 29th in Charleston if needed.
ITR 44: We Have A Champion…Again – Inside The Rink
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