Sports stats



ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Fall to Stingrays 9-3

February 14, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


The South Carolina Stingrays were powered by a 5 goal third period outburst in a 9-3 win Saturday night over the Gwinnett Gladiators in front of 8,223 fans at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. Four days after losing 9-3 to the Mississippi Sea Wolves to set a team record for most goals allowed in a game, the team repeated the effort against the Stingrays on Saturday.

South Carolina jumped out to a quick two goal lead in the first period. 3:31 in the stanza, defenseman Scott Romfo picked up a loose rebound and put it in for the 1-0 score. Pierre-Luc O'Brien and Jeff Corey assisted on the goal that came on a delayed penalty.

Less than two minutes later, Matt Scherer scored his sixth of the season to stretch the lead. The forward carried the puck from the right wing boards through the faceoff circle before firing a shot over netminder Josh Johnson's shoulder.

Chris Cava made the score 2-1 on an early second period goal 1:23 into the period seconds after a power play expired. Adam Berti brought the puck up the right wing wall, passed across to Jeff Mason at the point. The Gladiators Captain fired a shot from close to the blueline, and Cava tipped it in from the right doorstep. The goal was Cava's fifth of the season.

Rookie Michael Dubuc scored for the Stingrays two minutes later. Travis Morin skated through the neutral zone, and sneaked a pass through to Dubuc behind the Gladiator defense. The goal was Dubuc's 29th of the season, ranking him second in the league for first year players.

With five minutes left in the second period, South Carolina added a shorthanded goal to make the score 4-1. Maxime Lacroix intercepted a pass in the defensive zone, and started a 2-on-1 breakaway with Keith Johnson. Defenseman Jeff Mason appeared to have Johnson tied up, but the forward pulled a nifty spin move around Mason and goalie Johnson for his 12th of the season. The goal was the 12th shorthanded goal of the season allowed by Gwinnett.

The home fans had momentary hope as Jordan Fox scored on a shorthanded penalty shot goal 8 minutes into the third period. South Carolina sealed the win with four consecutive goals over a seven and a half minute stretch, one of which was another shorthanded goal.

With under a minute left, Jordan Fox scored his second of the game to make the score 8-3. South Carolina was not done yet though, as Spencer Carbery tallied his second of the game with :28 seconds left.

The three late goals scored by both teams set new records for both team for fastest three goals. The Gladiators previous record came January 14th of this year against Florida. South Carolina scored three goals in 1:23, setting a Gladiators record for fastest three goals by an opponent.

For South Carolina, 8 different players registered multiple point games. Goalie Josh Johnson made 15 saves in the losing effort, while Jonathan Boutin stopped 23 for the win.

In a game that saw three shorthanded goals, and two penalty shots, neither team was able to convert on a power play, as Gwinnett was 0-for-5 with the man advantage and South Carolina was 0-for-3.

Gwinnett returns to action tomorrow at 4:05 p.m. against the Charlotte Checkers at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.

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 21 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.

Check out the Atlanta Gladiators Statistics



ECHL Stories from February 14, 2009


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.

OurSports Central