Gladiators Clinch Playoff Berth in Win Over Greenville

The Gwinnett Gladiators clinched a playoff berth with a 4-3 victory over the Greenville Road Warriors Saturday (March 17) night at the in Duluth. The Gladiators came back from a 2-0 deficit in the second period with four straight goals for the win.

Gwinnett jumped four points ahead of Greenville in the Eastern Conference standings as the Gladiators have notched 87 points on the season. The Gladiators have now qualified for the post season in seven of nine seasons in Gwinnett.

The Road Warriors took a 2-0 lead in the fist period with two consecutive markers. Forward Brandon Wong opened the scoring of the game with a backhander that beat Gladiators netminder Marc Cheverie at 2:53 into the period.

The second goal from Greenville came at the end of the period with just 20 seconds left to play as rookie forward Kale Kerbashian flipped the puck over Cheverie in the slot for the 2-0 advantage. T.J. Reynolds and Wes Cunnignham each collected an assist on the marker. 

The Gladiators did not back down in the second period. Gwinnett scored four straight markers before Greenville could answer with a lone goal at the end of the period. 

To begin the middle stanza, Captain Paul Flache dropped his gloves with the Road Warriors Jason Wilson and drew a power play out of the melee for the Gladiators.

Forward Justin Milo did not hesitate to take advantage of the power play opportunity as he netted a rebound from Sean Duddy at the opposite post 45 seconds into the period. Nikita Kashirsky had the other assist. 

Only 47 seconds later, defenseman Corey Fienhage fired the puck towards the cage from the goal line. Kashirsky picked up the rebound on the backhand to jam it past Road Warriors netminder Nic Riopel to tie the game 2-2. Jonathan Parker notched a helper on the tying goal. 

Pat Galivan pushed a rebound under Riopel’s leg pad at 14:57 into the period, to give the Gladiators a 3-2 lead. Will Colbert and Jordan Foreman had the assists. 

Fienhage notched his second helper on the night as he found Brian Brutlag at the blue line. Brutlag picked up the pass and powered through Greenville’s defense and pulled up in the right wing circle and sniped the puck inside the far post past Riopel for the goal at 16:28 of the second period.

Greenville’s Lee Baldwin picked up a centering feed to beat Cheverie over the shoulder and cut the lead to 4-3 with just 35 seconds left in the second period. 

With the four consecutive goals in the period, the Gladiators tied the team season high of most goals in a single frame. 

The Gladiators shut down the Road Warriors in the final period on solid defensive play. Cheverie protected the cage with 11 third period saves, including a spectacular stop on a 2-0 break away early in the third period.

The Gladiators will head to Greenville next weekend to take on the Road Warriors at the BI-LO Center.

The Gladiators are the ECHL Affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres and the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League and are members of the ECHL, the Premier "AA" Hockey League and play all home games at the 11,355-seat Arena at Gwinnett Center, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth.

(Editor's note: This game report provided by the Gwinnett Gladiators.)