Today, the ECHL announced the 2024-2025 ECHL schedule as the Orlando Solar Bears enter their 13th year as an ECHL franchise. Orlando will only play two teams out of their division and one team out of the conference. We take a look at the 2024-25 breakdown below:
As a reminder, the home schedule will change once the NBA’s Orlando Magic releases their schedule later this summer.
Orlando will start their season at the Bon Secours Wellness Center in Greenville, SC, on Friday, October 20, 2024, in what will be the first of nine meetings between the two teams this year. Greenville finished first place in the south division, while Orlando finished fourth, giving a playoff series in which Orlando defeated Greenville 4-2. A very interesting note to mention is all of those games will be single games, except for April 11th and 12th in Orlando. Orlando will host Greenville in six of the nine games while traveling to Greenville for the other three. Orlando went 5-1-1 against Greenville last season, including a sweep April 4-6, 2024, at home.
The Kia Center will then be able to welcome the Solar Bears on the ice when they host the Savannah Ghost Pirates on Saturday, October 26 in what will be the first of 10 games in the season, afterwards they will go to Savannah for two more on October 27th and 30th. Savannah missed the playoffs last year as they got sixth in the South Division. That week will be the only week where out of the 10 games, where multiple of them are back-to-back, the other games will be single. Orlando will host six of the 10 games while traveling to Savannah for the other four. Orlando went 5-2-2 against the Ghost Pirates last season.
Next up after the series with Savannah will be in-state rival, the Jacksonville Icemen, who got second place in the South Division; the Bears will host the Icemen on Saturday, November 2, 2024, in what will be the first of 15 games this year, as that will be the only game at that moment until November 14th, when Orlando will take the bus ride to Jacksonville. The two teams will only have four games on consecutive days as the first two will be January 24th and 25th in a home and home series, while the other games will be a month later on February 21st and 23rd in another home and home series. Overall, seven games will be played in Orlando, while eight will be played at the Vystar Memorial Arena in Jacksonville. Orlando didn’t play so well against the Icemen, going 5-8 last season. Orlando will also end the season in Jacksonville on Sunday, April 13, 2024.
After the first game against the Icemen, Orlando will play Greenville on the third and finish the homestand against the Atlanta Gladiators on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. Atlanta finished last in the South Division last year. That game will be the first of 10 games against the Gladiators this year, most of them spread out, except for a span of five times in 10 days between March 21st and April 4th; it will also be five games of seven in those ten days. If the teams are close, this could be a good five games to watch. Orlando will host Atlanta five times and then travel to Atlanta five times. Last year, Orlando had quite a bit of fun, grabbing a 6-2-1 record against the Gladiators; they will look to do the same again this year.
After that game against Atlanta, Orlando will then travel to Estero to take on the three-time defending eastern conference champions for the first two games of 13 between the major rivals: Orlando Solar Bears and the Florida Everblades. The first two games will take place in southwest Florida in the swamp on November 8th and 9th, as the two teams meet once again. The two teams have been rivals since the Bears joined the ECHL in 2012. Last season, the rivalry was renewed also 13 times as the Bears went 6-6-1 in the regular season, ultimately getting bounced by the Everblades in the second round of the playoffs. The Everblades are currently back-to-back defending Kelly Cup Champions and are currently fighting for a third straight title. The best part of the rivalry will come right when the new year happens from December 26th 2024-January 4th, 2025, when the teams will play five times in that stretch, the Bears playing five of six against Florida as well. Orlando will host Florida six times while traveling down south for the other seven.
Next up on the list is a team from the Western Conference as the Bears will travel to Fish Country to take on the Toledo Walleye for a three-game series in three days, starting Friday, November 22nd, 2024. Toledo finished first place in the central division, getting bounced in the western conference finals for the second straight year. These two teams will play five teams against each other this season; they have not faced each other since the 2014-2015 season 10 years ago, all the way back on March 11, 2015, where the Walleye won 1-0. The teams played three times that year, with the Walleye winning all of them. It is an entirely new decade, as the two teams face off five times; it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. The two teams will also faceoff in Orlando for the other two games on March 28th and 29th.
To close out the south division opponents, we have the South Carolina Stingrays, who they will battle seven times this season, with the first game being played on November 30th at the Kia Center. The two teams will battle it out in South Carolina for the first time on January 18, 2025. Orlando will host the Stingrays four times and bus up to Charleston the other three times. Orlando won the season series 6-2-2 last season, with quite a few of those games going to overtime. South Carolina was knocked out on the final day when Orlando defeated Reading, so it will be interesting to see how the Stingrays come out against the Solar Bears.
Their last season opponent will come in a three-game series January 10th-12th against the Adirondack Thunder at the Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls, NY. The last time the two faced off against each other was March 2, 2023, when Adirondack defeated Orlando 3-0. Adirondack won the north division this past season, ultimately getting knocked out by Florida. This will be Orlando’s first trip to Adirondack in quite some time. It will be interesting to see who can win that series.
The playoff push starts in March, and the Solar Bears will be looking to do some home cooking in the final month and a half as they play 11 of 18 games at home at the Kia Center.
