ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Beat Augusta, 5-3

Published on April 8, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


Steve Slaton posted a natural hat trick to lead the Gladiators past the Augusta Lynx 5-3 on Saturday night at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The win was the Gladiators 50th of the sesaon as Gwinnett finishes the 2005-06 regular season with a 50-15-7 record and 107 points on the season.

Brian Teixeira gave the Gladiators an early 1-0 lead 2:06 into the first period. Adam Smyth knocked a clearing attempt by Augusta netminder Mike Wall right to Teixeira to post an assist on the goal. Teixeira then buried the puck past an out of position Wall for the goal.

Augusta jumped on top of the Gladiators with a pair of shorthanded goals within the last two minutes of the first period.

Mike Erickson squirted down the left wing wall and beat Gladiators netminder Sean Fields on the breakaway to tie the game at one. Erickson's unassisted goal came shorthanded for the Lynx.

Augusta took the 2-1 lead with their second shorthanded goal on the same penalty kill. Joe Pereira finished a 2-on-0 break with Sean Stefanski beating a sprawling Fields for the goal.

Steve Slaton then got things going for the Gladiators in the first seven minutes of the second period with his natural hat trick.

Slaton's first goal of the contest 48 seconds into the second period to push Gwinnett into a 2-2 tie with the Lynx. Slaton deflected Adam Courchaine's shot from the left circle for the marker. Derek Nesbitt also had a helper on the goal.

Gwinnett's second power play goal of the game was also Slaton's second goal of the period. The goal came at the 4:14 mark as he jammed the puck past Wall from the off-wing for the tally. Courchaine found Slaton on the door step to pick up an assist in the marker. Nesbitt also had an assist on the tally.

Slaton completed the natural hat trick by ripping a slapshot from the right wing point past Wall off a clean faceoff win by Teixeira for the goal. Adam Smyth also had an assist on the goal for Gwinnett.

Jeff Dwyer rounded out the scoring for Gwinnett, finishing a 2-on-1 break with Milan Gajic ripping a snap shot past Wall at the 8:40 mark of the third period. For Dwyer, it was his 7th goal of the season.

Gwinnett had two power play goals in the win but finished one tally shy of tying the ECHL record for most power play goals in a season. The Gladiators finished the year with 114 man advantage goals.

Gladiators netminder Sean Fields finished with 11 saves in the win as the Gladiators limited Augusta to just 14 shots in the contest, one shy of the season record.

The Gwinnett Gladiators open the 2006 Kelly Cup Playoffs with Game 1 of the Division Semi-Finals at the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Saturday, April 15th at 7:23 p.m. The Gladiators offer several ticket packages for different needs as well as group outings, suites and birthday parties. For more information call 770-497-5100 or log on to gwinnettgladiators.com.

The Gladiators play all 36 home games at the Arena at Gwinnett Center located on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth and are the AA affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers.

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ECHL Stories from April 8, 2006


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