Gladiators Win 11th Straight Home Game 4-3

The Gladiators earned their 11th straight home victory in a 4-3 shoot out win over the Florida Everblades on Thursday (Feb. 9) night at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. 

The first period ended in a scoreless tie, with both teams going 0-for-1 on the power play. The Everblades out shot the Gladiators 6-4 in the period.

Just 48 seconds into the second period, Everblade forward Brayden Irwin scored the opening marker of the game to give Florida the 1-0 lead. Ryan McGinnis and David Rutherford picked up the assists on the goal for the Blades.

Florida gained a 2-0 advantage at the 5:01 mark of the period. Forward Mathieu Roy was able to beat Gladiators netminder Joe Palmer off of a weird bounce and put the puck behind the goaltender. Defensemen David Fischer and McGinnis had the helpers. 

Later in the middle stanza, the Gladiators made a comeback to tie the game with back-to-back goals. 

On the Gladiators second power play of the game, Forward Bryan Brutlag rebounded the puck off of Florida goalender Pat Nagle’s chest and tapped it in for Gwinnett’s first marker of the game at 9:17 into the second period. Nikita Kashisrky and Paul Flache picked up the assists on the goal. Kashirsky extended his point-scoring streak to 11 games with the helper.

Defenseman Dallas Jackson went end to end on the ice to pick up his own rebound against Nagle and bury the puck past the netminder at the goal line to tie the game 2-2 at 10:52 for the Gladiators. Jackson’s marker came unassisted.

Florida answered Gwinnett’s two straight markers with a tally from Alex Hutchings from the right wing side to give the Blades a 3-2 advantage over the Gladiators heading into the second intermission.

In the final stanza of the game, Jackson found Flache at the point for a slap shot at the blue line to tie the game at 3-3. Tyler Murovich picked up his 21st assist of the season on the tying marker. Jackson and Flache both collected their second points of the game. 

The Gladiators and Everblades ended the third period tied 3-3 to take the game into overtime. After a scoreless overtime, the game headed into a shootout. 

After three rounds of the shoot-out, the Gwinnett and Florida remained tied at one. Joey Haddad broke the 1-1 tie in the fourth round to give the Galds a 2-1 advantage in the shoot out. Pat Galivan drilled the puck in the net in the fifth round to lift the Gladiators to their 11th consecutive home victory. 

The Gladiators will return to the to take on the Chicago Express for the first time this season at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday night.

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