ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Dark Side Crushes Glads, 7-1 on Star Wars Night

March 26, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


DULUTH, GA - The Reading Royals opened with five straight goals to top the Gwinnett Gladiators 7-1 Saturday night at the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Star Wars Night.

The Gladiators remain five points back of eighth place Cincinnati in the Eastern Conference playoff race with only four games remaining.

An unassisted shorthanded breakaway goal from Casey Haines with only 34 seconds remaining in the opening period gave the Royals a 1-0 lead headed into the second.

Reading tacked on four goals in the second period, the first coming at the 7:10 mark on a powerplay tally from Chris Blight.

Blight finished the night as the number one star with two goals and an assist.

Haines added his second marker less than two minutes later to make it 3-0. Blight wasn't finished either, adding a tally at 10:56 to extend the lead to four. Andrew Sarauer added the assist, his third of the night. Ian O'Connor tacked on the first goal of his pro career at 16:31 to make it a 5-0 game.

The Glads responded with just 54 seconds left in the period. Michael Forney hammered home a nice backdoor setup from the slot by Dustin Cameron and Matt Duffy to round out a disastrous twenty minutes.

Things did not improve for Gwinnett in the third. The Royals struck again to pad their lead 43 seconds in on the powerplay, as Rob Kwiet scored his eighth of the season. Eric Castonguay added a late goal to seal a 7-1 win for Reading.

The Royals outshot Gwinnett 42-30 and the Glads went 1-for-2 on the powerplay while Reading went 2-for-4.

Gwinnett is back in action Sunday against Reading at 4:05 pm.

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