Gladiators win in shootout

DULUTH - The Gwinnett Gladiators broke a three games shootout loss streak with a 5-3 win over the Greenville Grrrowl at the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Sunday night.

Greenville jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as Carl Mallette capitalized on a Gladiators defensive breakdown and beat netminder T.J. Aceti on a virtual breakaway 2:15 into the first period. Colin Pepperall added an assist on the goal.

The Gladiators tied the game at one just a minute later when Chris Durno found a loose puck in the slot and jammed it past Greenville netminder Mike Morrision for his first goal of the season. Kris Goodjohn and Brett Engelhardt hooked up to add the assists on the Gladiators goal.

Mallette capitalized on another Gladiators defensive breakdown at 9:40 of the first period to give Greenville a 2-1 lead. Martin St. Pierre tapped a loose puck up to Mallette to spring the forward on a breakaway.

Kris Goodjohn got the goal back for the Gladiators as he ripped a snapshot over the shoulder of Morrison at 11:15 of the first period to tie the contest at two. Engelhardt and Durno added the assists on the Gladiators goal.

Gwinnett took its first lead of the game on Mike Vigilante's third goal of the season. Vigilante snuck the puck past Morrison at 5:10 of the second period off a feed from Peter Flache. Jeff Campbell also added an assist on the goal.

Kevin Bergin's power play goal for the Grrrowl at 7:46 of the second period tied the game up at three. Corey Hessler and St. Pierre added the assist on the goal.

Cam Brown tallied his second game-winning goal of the season for the Gladiators at 4:53 of the third period to give the Gladiators a 4-3 lead. Flache and Mike Stathopoulos picked up the assists as they set up Brown in the slot for the game winner.

Kris Goodjohn added an empty net short-handed goal with 7 seconds remaining in the third period to ice the contest. Jim Jackson was able to clear the puck up the wing to Brown who tapped it along to Goodjohn to pick up the assists for the Gladiators goal.

T.J. Aceti improves to 2-0-0 on the season as the netminder recorded 28 saves in the win for the Gladiators. Greenville went 1-4 on the power play while the Gladiators were unsuccessful in their two tries.