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ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Gladiators Weekly Update

March 22, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


Slonina Streaking: With a goal in both Saturday night's loss at Augusta and last night's 5-0 blanking of the Columbia Inferno, Steve Slonina has tallied at least one point in each of the Gladiators past six games and his six game point scoring streak is currently a career high for the rookie. Through the first 42 games this season, Slonina tallied just 10 points for Gwinnett. In the past 13 games, the rookie out of the University of Massachusetts – Lowell has tallied 22 points. During that span, Slonina has recorded 7 multiple point games.

Career High: With an assist in Friday night's 4-3 loss to the Florence Pride and a goal in last night's 5-0 win over Columbia, forward Blue Bennefield has surpassed his previous career high for points in a season with 36 this year with the Gladiators. Bennefield has recorded 19 goals and 17 assists for 36 points in 63 games for Gwinnett breaking his previous high of 35 tallied during the 2000-01 with the Asheville Smoke of the United Hockey League.

The Doell Factor: Rookie forward Kevin Doell was called up to the Chicago Wolves on Thurday and missed the Gladiators losses on Friday against Florence and at Augusta on Saturday, before being reassigned to the Gladiators in time for Sunday's 5-0 win over Columbia. Doell also missed 7 games in January while with Chicago and Gwinnett is now 1-8-0 without Doell in the line up this season while their only win without the rookie forward came in a shootout.

Reassigned: Evan Nielsen was reassigned to the Gladiators from the American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves on Sunday. Nielsen was recalled from the Gladiators on January 24th and has appeared in 17 games with the Wolves this season. The rookie out of Notre Dame tallied his first AHL goal of the season in Wolves 5-2 loss on Saturday.

More than 20: The Gladiators have a hand full of players just a few goals shy of 20 on the season while Kevin Doell needs just 3 goals to reach the 30 goal plateau and Anthony Aquino needs 5 to reach 30. Cam Brown added his 17th goal of the season on Saturday and is 3 shy of 20, while Blue Bennefield is one goal shy of 20. Steve Slonina and Kris Goodjohn need three goals each to reach 20 while Chris Durno is four goals shy of the 20 -goal mark.

Community Update:

Lens Crafters – Gwinnett Place Mall – "Vision Van" Day – Gladiators Director of Community Relations Jim Hall and Maximus the Mascot will be at the Lens Crafters in the Gwinnett Place Mall for the "Vision Van" Day on Thursday, March 25th from noon until 1 p.m. Contact Barbara Wilson at (770) 623-9137 for more information.

Unity Place - Park Dedication Ceremony - Gladiators Director of Community Relations Jim Hall and Maximus the Mascot will be at the Unity Place Park Dedication Ceremony in Grayson on Saturday, March 27th from 9:45 a.m. till noon. For more information about Unity Place contact Judy Waters at (770) 982-9183.

Last Week's Games: 2-2-0, 4 pts.

March 16th, Gladiators 4, Augusta 1 – W

Steve Slonina recorded his third consecutive multiple point game with the games first goal and an assist on Kris Goodjohn's fifth game winning goal for the Gladiators. Chris Durno added two assists in the win while the line of Goodjohn, Durno and Slonina has combined for 19 points in the past five games for Gwinnett. Anthony Aquino and Kevin Doell tallied the Gladiators other two goals in the contest.

March 19th, Florence 4, Gladiators 3 – L

After falling behind 4-1 in the second period, Tyler Deis tallied his first goal as a Gladiator on a 2-man advantage and Chris Durno recorded his 15th goal of the season with 24 seconds left in the second period but it was not enough to carry the Gladiators through to the third period. Kris Goodjohn tallied the Gladiators first goal of the game to extend his point-scoring streak to six games while Trevor Prior made 23 saves in the loss.

March 20th, Augusta 5, Gladiators 2 – L

Augusta tallied two goals 34 seconds apart in the first 50 seconds of the third period to give the Lynx a 4-1 lead early in the final period. Cam Brown cut the Augusta lead in half midway through the third period but Gwinnett could get not closer. Steve Slonina extended his point scoring streak to five games with the Gladiators first goal in the opening period. Jeff Dotson turned aside the only shot he faced in four and a half minutes of relief action in the third period.

March 21st, Gladiators 5, Columbia 0 - W

Trevor Prior turned aside 31 shots, 16 in the second period, to record his first shutout of the season over a team he played for earlier this season. Steve Slonina tallied the game winner and the game's first goal 72 seconds into the second period for Gwinnett to extend his point scoring streak to six games. Anthony Aquino, Kris Goodjohn, Blue Bennefield and Chris Durno also had goal for Gwinnett in the win while Troy Milam and Joe Bourne were both +3 in the win.

This Week's Games:

Tuesday, March 23rd, vs. Alaska Aces, 7:05 p.m.

Gwinnett faces the first team from the former West Coast Hockey League. Alaska head coach Davis Pane and Gladiators head coach Jeff Pyle patrolled the bench for the Western Conference All-Stars as co-coaches in the 2004 Par-A-Dice ECHL All Star games this season. Alaska is the only non conference team Gwinnett faces this season that isn't in the ECHL's Southern Division.

Friday, March 26th, @ Texas Wildcatters, 8:05 p.m.

First and only time the Gladiators face the 7th place Texas Wildcatters this season. Texas has dropped four straight games as they enter Friday's match up with the Gladiators.

Saturday, March 27th, @ Louisiana IceGators, 8:05 p.m.

Louisiana won the first meeting this season between the Gladiators and the IceGators, a 4-3 shootout win at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.

Sunday, March 28th, @ Louisiana IceGators, 5:05 p.m.

The Gladiators are 0-0-1 this season against the IceGators and are 19-33-4 all time against Louisiana. The IceGators have already clinched a Central Division playoff berth with 94 points entering the weekend.

This Weekend's Practice Schedule:

Monday: 10:30 a.m. – noon, Arena at Gwinnett Center

Tuesday: game vs. Alaska

Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Arena at Gwinnett Center

Thursday: 8:30 a.m. practice at Mississippi Coast Coliseum

Friday: game @ Texas

Saturday: game @ Louisiana

Sunday: game @ Louisiana

Check out the Atlanta Gladiators Statistics



ECHL Stories from March 22, 2004


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