ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Phillips, Bloodoff Lead Gladiators over Rays 4-0

January 3, 2014 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - Brad Phillips made 39 saves for his first pro shutout, as the Gwinnett Gladiators trounced the top team in the ECHL, the South Carolina Stingrays, 4-0 Fridaynight at North Charleston Coliseum.

With Phillips holding down the fort between the pipes, the offense erupted against one of the top goaltenders in the league. Evan Bloodoff scored twice in Gwinnett's (11-19-0-2) fourth win in its last six games, with reigning ECHL Goaltender of the Month Jeff Jakaitis suffering his first regulation loss in 13 starts.

Gwinnett outshot the Stingrays (23-6-1-2) in the opening period but neither team could find the back of the net. That was certainly not the case in the middle period. Jakaitis hadn't allowed more than two goals in 12 straight starts, but the Gladiators solved him three times in the span of 20 minutes despite being outshot 18-7 in the period.

Brenden Walker opened the scoring nearly three minutes into the period, firing a shot through traffic from the point past Jakaitis. Josh Currie andBrett Lyon helped set it up.

A little under two minutes later, Gwinnett struck again right off a faceoff. Bobby Hughes won the draw to Maxime Legault, who immediately fired a low wrist shot through Jakaitis' legs for a 2-0 Gladiators lead.

Bloodoff made it a 3-0 game at 19:03, deflecting a Jonathan Narbonnepoint shot past the Rays goaltender. Dirk Southern had the second assist.

The period also feature two spirited bouts, with Gwinnett's Southern battling Ryan Grimshaw, and Lyon getting the best of South Carolina's Igor Gongalsky later in the period.

Bloodoff added a goal on the power play in the third at 11:45. Southern took a feed from Currie and drove hard to the net front. Denied twice by Jakaitis, Bloodoff was there to tuck the third rebound in. The goal was original waved off by referee Kenny Anderson, but after consulting the goaljudge he changed the ruling. It was Bloodoff's team-leading 12th goal of the season.

The loss is just South Carolina's fourth in their past 17 games, with three of those defeats coming against Gwinnett.

Gwinnett is next in action Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. at the Arena at Gwinnett Center against the Florida Everblades.

The Gladiators are members of the ECHL, the nation's premier "AA" hockey league and are affiliated with the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL. All home games are played at the 11,355-seat Arena at Gwinnett Center, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth.

For all the latest team news, contests, and more visit GwinnettGladiators.com, or "like" the Gladiators on Facebook (Facebook.com/GwinnettGladiators), and follow the team on Twitter (Twitter.com/GWTGladiators).




ECHL Stories from January 3, 2014


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