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ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Beat Everblades 6-3

March 15, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


A hat trick and an assist from Matt Siddall helped the Gwinnett Gladiators to knock off the division leading Florida Everblades on Sunday afternoon in front of 5,237 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The first period proved to be a netminding duel between goaltenders Joe Fallon and Dave Leggio where each made nine and 13 saves, respectively.

After the scoreless first period, Matt Siddall finally notched one for the Gladiators with a shot from the right face-off circle on the power play at 46 seconds into the second. Brandon Kaleniecki and Tom Zanoski tallied helpers on the goal. Gwinnett then went up 2-0 at 5:21 of the same period when Siddall notched his second goal of the evening.

Dirk Southern pushed the Gladiators' lead to three with a power play goal later in the middle stanza. Southern received help from Jordan Fox, who notched his second assist of the evening on the goal, and Jeff Mason also had an assist.

The Florida Everblades halted goaltender Joe Fallon's shutout attempt 24 seconds into the final period with a power play goal from A.J. Thelen. Peter Metcalf and Kevin Baker both notched an assist on the goal. Later, Siddall worked the puck out of the corner, stayed with it as he headed towards the goal and then passed it to Mike Looby who was waiting in front of the net for another Gladiator goal. It was the first goal for Looby after being acquired from Dayton in January.

Florida's Kevin Baker cut the Gladiators' lead in half less than two minutes later with his league-leading 49th goal of the season. Almost a minute later, Ernie Hartlieb brought the Everblades within one with a goal from Colin Nicholson and Tim Cook.

At 13:17 Siddall tallied yet another goal to notch a hat trick and push the Gladiators' lead to five. Siddall's 15th goal of the season came on the penalty kill with an assist from Adam Berti, his second of the night. Since being re-assigned from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League, Siddall has tallied four goals and two assists in three games.

Finally, with 12.7 seconds left to go in the contest, Pat Bateman notched a short-handed, empty net goal to double the Gladiators lead and give them the 6-3 victory.

Fallon, who has also been recently re-assigned to Gwinnett from the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL, made 18 saves in the victory; Florida's Leggio made 21 saves.

The Gladiators travel to Ohio this week for back-to-back games against the Cincinnati Cyclones at the U.S. Bank Arena starting on Wednesday, March 18th at 7:30 p.m. Catch all the play by play action on WDUN, News Talk 55.

Began in 1988-89 with five teams playing in four states, the Premier ‘AA' Hockey League has grown into a coast-to-coast league that will have 23 teams in 16 states and British Columbia playing 864 games from Oct. 17, 2008 to Apr. 4, 2009. Eighteen of the 23 teams have played at least five years in their current city.

The third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL averaged 4,174 per game last season, marking the fourth year in row and the 16th time in the last 18 years that the league has averaged over 4,000 fans. The league has drawn over four million fans each of the last five years and 11 times in the past 12 seasons.

The Gwinnett Gladiators open their sixth season as a proud member of the ECHL in October of 2008 - season ticket packages are on sale now. In addition, the Gladiators offer several unique multi-game ticket packages as well as discounted group rates, suite rentals, and birthday parties. For more information call 770-497-5100 or log on to gwinnettgladiators.com.

The Gladiators are the AA affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers and play all home games at the spectacular 11,355-seat Arena at Gwinnett Center, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth, where parking is always free.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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