ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Post 2-1 win over Stingrays

January 3, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


After being blanked 2-0 by the South Carolina Stingrays the night before, the Gwinnett Gladiators were looking for revenge and found it in their own 2-1 win over the Stingrays on Saturday night. Goalie Joe Fallon, in his first start since being assigned to the Gwinnett Gladiators from the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks, held the Stingrays scoreless through the first and second period making a mere 20 saves.

Matt Siddall put one on the board for the Gladiators with his fifth marker of the season, his first since being re-assigned to Gwinnett on December 21st. The goal came at 14:19 of the period with assists from Jordan Fox and Jean-Claude Saywer.

Forward Jordan Fox notched another for the Gladiators with less than a minute to go in the middle stanza. Fox's goal found the bottom of the net as he fell backwards in a second effort attempt to score on the rebound.

The Stingrays made a goalie change in the final period, putting in John Havrilack to replace Michal Neuvirth after the netminder was injured. Neuvirth faced 21 shots and allowed two goals in the 42 minutes he played between the pipes.

The Stingrays finally found a way to beat Gwinnett's Fallon with 31 seconds to go in the third, when Maxime Lacroix tallied a goal for South Carolina. Pierre-Luc O'Brien and Travis Morin were on hand to assist on Lacroix's marker.

While Fallon made just 20 saves in the net, South Carolina's Neuvirth and Havrilack made a combined 30 saves with their shared time in goal.

Gwinnett continues action in the 2008-09 season on Thursday, January 8th as they host the South Carolina Stingrays again at the Arena at Gwinnett Center at 7:05 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 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 January 3, 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