DULUTH -- On Fan Appreciation Night at home, the Gwinnett Gladiators gave the fans quite the show in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Greenville Road Warriors Saturday night.
Dan O’Donoghue scored two goals, while Zach Sarig tallied his first professional goal.
In a familiar fashion for the weekend, the Greenville Road Warriors (37-29-2-3) once again opened the game with a goal against the Gladiators (19-44-4-3) early in the first period. A mere two minutes into the game, Kent Patterson found himself in a one-on-one situation with Josh Nicholls, who received the puck in front of the net from Chris McCarthy on the right flank. Patterson made the initial save, but Nicholls was right there to follow in his own rebound at 2:37.
Anthony Luciani doubled the score at 8:39, finding net for his 26th goal of the season, when the puck bounced out to the back post after the Road Warriors put forth multiple attempts on Patterson.
Facing a two-goal deficit, the Gladiators came out fired up and absolutely turned on the heat in the second period. The home team scored just five minutes into the period on a power play, when Daniel Bahntge squared up a pass to Zach Sarig along the offensive blue line, and Sarig immediately ripped in shot to tally his first professional goal.
Almost before the home team could conclude their celebration, the Road Warriors answered with a third goal. Thomas Frazee dumped the puck just in front of net, where Michael St. Croix put it in behind Patterson on the far post at 6:48.
The Gladiators did not let up even for a moment, scoring two more goals in the period to tie up the score. The second Gladiator goal began with a pass from Bo Dolan to Dan O’Donoghue, who was standing directly in front of the Gladiator’s bench and blasted in the puck at 10:34.
At 7:51, Geoff Paukovich received a hard elbow to the back of the head, courtesy of Paul Rodrigues, and fell face first onto the ice. Paukovich did not move for several minutes before finally being helped off the ice bent over, unable to stand straight up. Rodrigues received an elbowing major and game misconduct for his flagrant attack on the forward.
The home team responded to Greenville’s brutality with a goal on the five-minute power play, sufficiently evening the score at 13:00. Zach Yuen sent a bullet towards Jeff Malcolm in goal that was tipped by O’Donoghue before entering the net, giving the forward his second goal of the game.
The Gladiators carried over their incredible efforts into the third period, breaking the tie almost immediately on brilliant follow up goal by Brock Higgs at 4:33. Tyler Shiplo came around the front of the crease and backhanded the puck cleanly towards the net, but it hung at the bottom of the near post. Higgs quickly swept around the back of the net to finish the job while toppling over a fallen Malcolm. However, the score was once again evened up with Anthony Luciani’s second goal of the night at 13:05, forcing the game into overtime.
After a scoreless five-minute overtime period, the two teams entered a shootout. Brock Higgs, the third Gladiator up, scored the only goal for the home team, while St. Croix and Dallas Jackson both notched goals to give the opposition the win.
The Gladiators play their FINAL home game of the 2014-2015 season this Wednesday, April 8th, taking on the Evansville IceMen at 7:05 p.m. The team will then head to Greenville on April 11th to take on Road Warriors at 7:00 p.m. for their last game of the season.
For tickets and schedule information, visit the official team website at Gwinnett Gladiators or call the main office line at 770-497-5100.
The Gladiators are members of the ECHL, the nation’s premier "AA" hockey league, and are affiliated with the Arizona Coyotes of the NHL. All home games are played at the 11,355-seat Arena at Gwinnett Center, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth – where parking is always free.
As Atlanta’s “One and Only” professional hockey team, the Gladiators have established an extraordinary winning tradition and unrivaled commitment to excellence, maintaining a distinctive reputation for affordable and family-friendly sports entertainment. The Gladiators are consistently ranked as one of the top “Things To Do” in the Atlanta area and across the North Georgia region.
