The ECHL’s Southern Division is a good one, as we are almost at the 3/4 mark of the season. The 1st place Florida Everblades and the 6th place Orlando Solar Bears sit just 9 points apart after Orlando was able to take care of business against the Everblades in Estero this weekend, winning Friday’s game 3-2 and last night’s game 3-2 in a shootout that featured 14 shooters for each team.
- Everblades: 27-11-4-3, 61 pts, .678 winning percentage, 27 games left
- Icemen: 29-15-2-0, 60 pts, .652 winning percentage, 26 games left
- Stingrays: 27-12-4-1, 59 pts, .670 winning percentage, 28 games left
- Swamp Rabbits: 26-12-7-0, 59 pts, .656 winning percentage, 27 games left
- Gladiators: 24-17-5-1, 54 pts, .574 winning percentage, 25 games left
- Solar Bears: 23-19-5-1, 52 pts, .542 winning percentage, 24 games left
- Ghost Pirates: 14-24-8-1, 37 pts, .394 winning percentage, 25 games left
The top 4 teams in each division make it to the Kelly Cup Playoffs, so while there are still a lot of points up for grabs, this will be a good playoff race to see which teams will make it.
South Division Rivalry games this week:
Tuesday: Solar Bears@Ghost Pirates, Stingrays@Gladiators. Wednesday: Solar Bears@Icemen. Friday: Stingrays@Solar Bears, Icemen@Swamp Rabbits. Saturday: Icemen@Stingrays, Swamp Rabbits@Ghost Pirates.
The Solar Bears have just one more game against Florida this year, seven more against Jacksonville, two more against Savannah, four more against Greenville, two more against South Carolina, one more against Atlanta, and the rest are inter-division games.
Coming up this week for Orlando: Tuesday, Feb 14@Savannah, 7 pm EST; Wednesday, Feb 15@Jacksonville, 7 pm EST; Friday, Feb 17 vs. South Carolina, 7 pm EST; Sunday, Feb 19, 3 pm EST and Monday, Feb 20, 7 pm EST vs. Utah.
