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ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Drop 5-3 Decision to Jackals

December 16, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


Two power play goals were not enough to beat the visiting Elmira Jackets Tuesday night, as the Gwinnett Gladiators lost a 5-3 decision to the visiting Elmira Jackets at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. Gwinnett opened the scoring late in the first period on a power play goal by Brandon Kaleniecki. Bruce Graham took the puck on the right wing wall, and fired a pass towards the crease, where a streaking Kaleniecki put it in to take the lead.

Elmira tied the game only :14 seconds later. Paul McIlveen grabbed the rebound off of a shot by defensemen Travis Gawryletz, and put it past Gwinnett goalie Josh Johnson for his fourth goal of the season.

The Jackals took their first lead of the night at 3:41 of the second period. Pierre-Luc Faubert carried the puck up the left wing, shooting from the top of the faceoff circle. The long range shot found a hole directly above Johnson's glove to make the score 2-1.

Gwinnett tied the game later in the stanza on an unassisted goal by Bruce Graham. The forward grabbed a loose puck in the defensive zone, and skated it in all alone and put it past Elmira netminder Mitch O'Keefe through his five-hole. The goal was Graham's ninth of the season, and was the Gladiators second powerplay goal on the night.

Elmira regained the lead 1:09 into the third period. A tic-tac-toe play by the Jackals from the right wing across the ice created the go ahead goal. Benoit Doucet scored the tally, and Travis Gawryletz and Paul McIlveen picked up the assists.

Three minutes later, Gwinnett scored the equalizer on a highlight reel goal by Jordan Fox. Andy Brandt threw a puck from the right wing point. O'Keefe made the save, but the puck popped up high in the air. Fox swooped in, and baseball-batted the puck into the net. The goal was Fox's 11th on the season. Jeff Dunne also assisted on the tally.

Elmira grabbed the lead for good with just over seven minutes left in the game. Wes Cunningham fired the puck from high on the left wing side. Josh Aspelind tipped the low shot high over Johnson, for the game winning goal.

Josh Johnson held the lead to just 1 goal when he stopped a late penalty shot chance for Brian Ihnacak. Paul McIlveen picked up his second goal of the game with 1 second left, adding the empty net goal.

The Gladiators were 2 for 7 on the power play, and were perfect on the penalty kill, holding Elmira to 0 for 3 with the man advantage.

O'Keefe made 40 saves for the win, while Johnson had 28 in the losing effort.

With the loss, the Gladiators fall to 11-10-0-4, and missed a chance to grab a tie with the Mississippi Sea Wolves for third place in the division.

Gwinnett returns to action next on Friday, December 19th when they take on the Charlotte Checkers on the road. The team returns home to Gwinnett Sunday, December 21st, when they take on Elmira in a rematch at 4:05 p.m..

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.

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