ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Fall Short to Pride, 4-3

March 19, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


After squandering a three-goal lead, the Florence Pride were able to hang on and beat the Gwinnett Gladiators 4-3 on Friday night in front of 5,619 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.

Matt Reid single-handedly gave the Florence Pride a 1-0 lead. Reid slid past the Gladiators defense and pulled goaltender Trevor Prior out of his net and slid the puck past the netminder in the slot. Allan Sirois added an assist on the goal at 5:48 of the opening period as he won the face-off right to Reid.

Florence pushed its lead to two goals on Wes Goldie's 35th goal of the season. Adam Elzinga and Kyle Kidney hooked up to feed Goldie in the slot for the shorthanded goal at 17:46 of the first.

Kris Goodjohn got the Gladiators on the board 72 seconds into the second period as he picked up a rebound in the slot and flipped the puck over Florence netminder Sebastien Laplante. Chris Durno and Steve Slonina added the assists on the goal.

Florence answered 24 seconds later as Luke Earl muscled down the left wing and flipped the puck past Prior at 1:26 of the period for the unassisted goal to regain the two goal advantage for the Pride.

Vladimir Gusev pushed the Florence lead to three goals as he found a loose puck in the left wing circle and beat Prior through traffic in front of the net for the goal. Shaun Sutter and Luke Earl added the assists on the goal at 15:05 of the period.

Gwinnett cut the Florence lead back to two goals on a 5-on-3 power play goal at 17:46 of the second period. Tyler Deis took a rink wide pass from Brandon Dietrich off a Wes Swinson feed for the power play goal at 17:46 of the period.

After Swinson clanked the puck off the post, Chris Durno beat Laplante to the far post on a break down the right wing to put the Gladiators within one goal at the second intermission. Blue Bennefield added an assist on the goal at 19:36 of the second period.

The Gladiators could get not closer in the final period as the teams skated through a scoreless final period.

Gwinnett went 1-for-4 on the power play while out shooting the Pride 46-27 in the in the loss to fall to 35-20-7 on the season.

The Gladiators are back in action tomorrow when they travel to Augusta to take on the Lynx for a 7:30 p.m. tilt before returning home to the Arena at Gwinnett Center to host the Columbia Inferno in a 4:05 p.m. start.

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ECHL Stories from March 19, 2004


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