I was sitting around Wednesday and fired up the FloHockey app to watch some hockey. 

As I flipped between the Norfolk Admiral’s 3-1 victory over the North Division-leading Adirondack Thunder, the Reading Royals’ 4-0 victory over the suddenly struggling Wheeling Nailers and the Mountain Division-leading Kansas City Mavericks’ nailbiter of a 4-2 victory over the Tulsa Oilers, I couldn’t help but think every game had suddenly taken on greater importance.

Yep, it’s that time of year.

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Every team in the ECHL has only 19-22 games remaining in the regular season. Only a handful of them – the Atlanta Gladiators, Rapid City Rush, Savannah Ghost Pirates and Iowa Heartlanders – are out of playoff contention.  

So, let’s take a look at some of the races, for playoff spots or otherwise, that are piquing my interest as we head into the final six weeks of the season.

Seeds 3-4 In The South Division

I haven’t gotten much negative feedback on my ECHL power rankings this season – which obviously means I’ve been spot on – but I did hear a bit from Orlando this week when I had the Solar Bears, who are a not-too-shabby 26-18-8 with 60 standings points, at No. 16.

I stand by where I had them. 

Yes, they’ve won 5 of 7 games, and that includes a 4-3 victory Feb. 14 over the Florida Everblades in an overtime shootout, but they’ve also been beating up on teams, such as Atlanta and the Worcester Railers, who aren’t exactly powerhouses. 

Let’s see what the Solar Bears do this weekend with three games against the Jacksonville Icemen (33-15-5, 71 points), who are atop the FloHockey rankings.

That said, the South Division has been very difficult to decipher, a testament to it being the strongest division in the league. 

Jacksonville is the hot team, now on an 8-0-2 run, putting the Icemen within three points of the division-leading Greenville Swamp Rabbits (36-16-2, 74 points). It looks as if those two teams will be duking it out for the top two spots in the division, and both would get home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

That leaves a whopper of a battle for the final two playoff spots between the South Carolina Stingrays (31-19-3, 65 points), two-time defending-champion Everblades (27-15-9, 63 points) and the Solar Bears.

Orlando can get hot – it won 12 of 15 games between Dec. 3 and Jan. 10 – so I wouldn’t count out the Solar Bears. No matter how you cut it, though, one really good team is going to miss the postseason.

Fort Wayne Vs. Kalamazoo In Central Division

I hate the concept of play-in games for a simple reason: You spend a whole regular season trying to determine the best teams, so why are you making it easier for a team with a poor résumé to squeak into the postseason at the last moment?

No, the ECHL doesn’t have such things – the top four teams in each division head directly into best-of-seven first-round series – but seeing what’s going on in the South and Central Divisions does give me pause. 

It almost seems unfair that Orlando, or the Fort Wayne Komets or the Kalamazoo Wings – teams that quite possibly would be the third-best in the North or Mountain Divisions – will miss out on the playoffs.

But that’s life. And it sure makes for intrigue down the stretch.

In the Central Division, Fort Wayne (26-22-5, 57 points) and Kalamazoo (27-20-3, 57 points) are tied for the fourth, and final, playoff spot. 

The potential of the Komets missing the postseason is no small thing; they haven’t done that since their first season in the ECHL, 2012-2013, and that’s the only time they missed the postseason since 2002. They’ve won six championships in four leagues since then.

Chances are, though, the Komets are going to be on the outside of the playoffs. Kalamazoo has three games in a hand and only has 11 remaining games against teams on pace to miss the playoffs, while Fort Wayne has only two such games.

The good news for Fort Wayne fans is that the Komets can do much to control their own destiny. 

They face the Wings three more times and have a 4-1-1 record against them. The Komets also play all their remaining games against divisional foes, while Kalamazoo begins a tough three-game set at the Newfoundland Growlers tonight and also has a three-game set remaining against the always tough Allen Americans.  

It’s not unfathomable that the Komets and/or Wings catch the third-place Wheeling Nailers (30-21-2, 62 points) or even the second-place Indy Fuel (29-18-5, 63 points), but rationally speaking, it’s going to come down to Kalamazoo and Fort Wayne – teams separated by only 115 miles – for that final playoff spot.

For the second month in a row, the @ECHL has named a Mavericks player as the Plus Performer of the Month! Jake McLaughlin takes the month of February with +13! pic.twitter.com/zrVArXFpmC

— Kansas City Mavericks (@kc_mavericks) February 29, 2024

Mountain Division Title

The Kansas City Mavericks have been, over the entire season, the ECHL’s best team. They’re stacked from top to bottom, are well coached and have the league’s best record at 39-10-3 (81 points). On the road, the Mavericks are an incredible 21-2-1.

But I wouldn’t count out the Idaho Steelheads (36-14-3, 75 points) quite yet.

Idaho has more experience in this position, thanks to its drive to the regular-season championship and to the finals of the Kelly Cup Playoffs last season, and it’s currently on an 8-1-1 run (slightly better than Kansas City’s 7-2-1 run). 

It should be noted, some of the Steelheads’ biggest stars, Mark Rassell, Patrick Kudla and Ty Pelton-Byce, went back up to the AHL this month.

The Mavericks and Steelheads have no more head-to-head meetings, and Idaho has some tough upcoming games, including three games at the Newfoundland Growlers on March 8-10 and three games at the Trois-Rivières Lions on March 13-16.

But Idaho certainly still is in it.

Fourth Place In The North Division

Kudos to the Reading Royals for making a comeback. 

Since Jason Binkley replaced James Henry as coach, the Royals have gone 5-5-3. 

That doesn’t sound all that great, but it’s been enough to take Reading to a 21-24-7 overall record (49 points) and pull the Royals within one point of the Maine Mariners (22-23-6) and Worcester Railers (22-23-6) for fourth place in the North Division.

A month ago, I would have said Worcester is the best of those three teams, but the Railers have lost 5 of 6 games. Maine’s 6-4 victory at the Central Division-leading Toledo Walleye last week – part of a recent 3-1-1 run – was good evidence the Mariners are the scariest of those North Division teams jostling for the fourth spot.

But don’t underestimate a team like Reading that’s still riding the adrenaline of a coaching change and getting good play from its goaltender; Nolan Maier has stopped 85 of 86 shots in his last two games.

ECHL Coach Of The Year

The Kansas City Mavericks’ Tad O’Had has been the front-runner for ECHL Coach of the Year for a long while, especially when you consider what we thought this season was going to be – another Idaho Steelheads cruise to the division title. 

O’Had gets extra points for what he’s done with rookies, such as Max Andreev and Cade Borchardt.

The Adirondack Thunder’s Pete MacArthur also deserves a lot of credit for taking a team that squeaked into the playoffs last year and making it a North Division-leading powerhouse.

But let’s talk about the man who’d get my vote today, the Norfolk Admirals’ Jeff Carr. 

I expected the Admirals to be vastly improved this season, based on the promise they showed in the second half of last season, but I didn’t pick them to make the postseason. Right now, they’re in second place in the North Division. 

The Admirals, who entered the league in 2015, have never qualified for the postseason. In fact, they’ve never finished above fifth in a division, and that was in their inaugural ECHL season. It’s no small thing to put aside a culture of losing and totally change it – I’m a Detroit Lions fan, I know these things – and Carr deserves a ton of credit.

the drama portrayed here is unreal https://t.co/nftMUndlgs pic.twitter.com/7PN1afnoLI

— Adirondack Thunder (@ECHLThunder) March 2, 2024

ECHL Rookie Of The Year

Austin Magera of the South Carolina Stingrays is the easy pick right now because he leads ECHL rookies in goals (21) and points (54) in 52 games. 

The Kansas City Mavericks’ Max Andreev will get a lot of consideration, too, thanks to his 13 goals and 53 points in 42 games for the ECHL’s top team.

The Fort Wayne Komets’ Ture Linden has been sneaky good with 19 goals and 48 points in 54 games, and there have been other standout rookies, such as South Carolina’s Jack Adams and Mitchell Gibson, the Rapid City Rush’s Blake Bennett (who leads rookies with 22 goals), the Indy Fuel’s Kyle Maksimovich, the Maine Mariners’ Brad Arvanitis and the Adirondack Thunder’s Vinnie Purpura.

I would make a case right now for Jacksonville Icemen goalie Matt Vernon as the ECHL Rookie of the Year. He’s 19-4-1 with a 2.22 goals-against average (tops in the league among goalies with at least 1,020 minutes) and a .923 save percentage (fourth).

The Icemen will have plenty of options in net come the playoffs – Joe Murdaca has been playing well, and Michael Houser is there, though currently on injured reserve – but Vernon has eased the strain with his stellar play.

Leaders In Fighting Majors

Congratulations go to Mark Liwiski of the Norfolk Admirals, who already has locked up the race for most penalty minutes in the ECHL. He has 235, which is 88 more than the next man, Kalamazoo’s Chaz Reddekopp. 

Liwiski hasn’t done it all by dropping the gloves – he has a league-high 50 minor penalties – and he isn’t a bad player. He’s got seven goals, 18 points and a plus-5 rating in just 41 games.

But there’s still time to determine if he’ll have the most fighting majors. So far, he has an ECHL-high nine. 

The Orlando Solar Bears’ Kelly Bent, who also has played for the Wichita Thunder, has eight fighting majors. The Toledo Walleye’s Adrien Beraldo, Wheeling Nailers’ Matthew Quercia and South Carolina Stingrays’ Garet Hunt have seven fighting majors apiece.

Six players have fought six times, and would anyone be surprised if the Fort Wayne Komets’ Daniel “Diamond Hands” Amesbury found a way to get into this race, despite having only two fights in seven games?

What makes watching the fighting majors compelling is the ECHL rule that caps fighting majors at 10. Once a player reaches that point, he has to sit out a game. For each subsequent fight, it’s another game. That means Liwiski, and those like him, may have to keep it in check the rest of the way.

Not to go down a rabbit hole here, but I hate the rule, which was introduced in 2019 (and is used in the AHL, too). 

The ECHL is acknowledging fighting still has a relevance, so it allows it in games, but a player shouldn’t have to change his way of doing things late in the season when games become more important. 

I get it, we’re trying to weed out goonery, but I think we could come up with ways that don’t force players to sit out games for doing something they can do in October. 

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