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ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Earn Split in OT Victory

December 19, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


The Gladiators and Wings needed an overtime period to decide another close match up on Saturday in Kalamazoo. Gwinnett stormed back from a 2-goal deficit in the third period to force overtime, where Pat Galivan would life the Gladiators to a 4-3 OT victory.

Just as was seen in the game yesterday, the Gladiators and Wings skated to a scoreless tie after the first period. The Wings had a few great chances coming on while Gwinnett was enjoying the man-advantage, but goaltender David Brown made a number of great saves to keep the game scoreless. The Gladiators fired 11 shots on goal in the first while the Wings launched 13 of their own.

The second period saw the game open up a little bit for both teams. After a couple of 2-on-1 rushes for the Gladiators were made irrelevant by Jeremy Duchesne for the Wings, Ben Simon connected with Darryl Lloyd on an odd-man rush to give the Wings the first goal of the game. Louis Liotti also assisted on the even-strength marker at 7:45.

The Gladiators looked to still be in shock as just 29 seconds later the Wings struck again. Rick Cleaver moved the puck up to Andrew Fournier who sliced through the Gladiator defense and gave Kalamazoo a 2-0 lead.

Patrick Galivan struck back for the Gladiators getting a short-handed tally. The Wings worked the puck back looking for a one-timer at the point. Galivan put a shin guard in front of the shot and follow the play up getting a break-away opportunity. After a nice move to the forehand, Galivan came right back to the back-hand and lifted the puck into the back of the net. The unassisted marker came at 13:17.

Gwinnett was not able to hold Kalamazoo off the scoreboard for the rest of the period. Liotti received a pass at the right point and blasted a shot with traffic in front of Brown. Fournier tipped the shot off the right post and into the back of the net, putting the Wings back up by 2. The time of the goal was 18:27.

The Gladiators brought all the pressure in the third period as they would add two goals in the third frame. The first of them came from Tim Miller at the 4:52 mark of the third. While the Gladiators were on the power play Miller found the puck in the slot and blasted a shot through the five- hole pulling the Gladiators to within 1 goal.

Jason Lawrence tied it up for the Gladiators with 2:39 to go in the third period. Galivan and Mike Bayrack were able to track down a bouncing puck in the offensive zone. Galivan moved the puck back to Lawrence and he picked the right corner of the net to tie the game at 3.

The Gladiators killed off a 4-on-3 power play at the start of the overtime period which eventually set the stage for Pat Galivan. Galivan moved the puck back the right point for Sam Roberts, and his shot deflected to Galivan who was crashing the net hard for Gwinnett. Galivan made no mistake and slammed it home for his second goal of the night winning the game for Gwinnett.

The Gladiators improved to 14-9-2-1 on the night while the Wings fell to 16-8-2-0.

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