ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Royals Double up Gladiators 6-3

Published on March 24, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


Ryan Cruthers finished with two goals and two assists, and Andrew Sarauer had three assists to lead the Reading Royals to a pivotal 6-3 victory over the Gwinnett Gladiators at the Arena at Gwinnett Center Wednesday night. With major playoff implications on the line, the Gladiators were unable to scratch out their third straight victory, as they fell further behind in the race to the 2010 Kelly Cup Playoffs. Reading opened up four different two-goal leads, and it proved to be too much for the Gladiators, as the Royals claimed the victory in the third match up between the teams on the year, avoiding the season sweep by Gwinnett.

Despite the Gladiators earning the game's first power play 4:23 into the opening period on a high-sticking call to Reading's Jimmy Fraser, it was the Royals who struck first, as Andrew Sarauer led a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush into the Gladiators' defensive zone. Gwinnett goaltender David Brown stopped Sarauer's initial shot, but the rebound directed onto the stick of Ryan Cruthers, and he buried a shot into an open net for the 1-0 lead.

Another odd-man-rush led to the Royals gaining a 2-0 lead, as former Gladiator Aaron Brocklehurst took a drop pass in the slot and sniped a wrist shot over the glove of Brown for his 13th of the season.

Matt Francis scored his team-leading 10th power play goal at 10:19 of the period to cut the Royals' lead in half, taking a pass from Mike McLean as he raced into the zone and firing a shot off a couple of posts and behind Reading net minder Matt Dalton.

The teams skated evenly through the first two thirds of the second period before a flurry of five goals flooded into both nets in the final six minutes, including a Gladiators organization record-tying three goals by both teams within 40 seconds of each other.

Olivier Labelle restored the Royals' two goal lead at 13:13 before Paris notched the Gladiators' second power play strike of the game at 15:02 to cut the Royals' lead back down to just one. Just 23 seconds later, Daniel Steiner made it 4-2, but Gwinnett's Tom Zanoski slid a backhander under Dalton on an odd-man-rush just 17 seconds after that to bring the score up to 4-3.

Daniel Steiner then lit the lamp for the second time in the period with just 43 seconds remaining in the period to give the Royals their third two-goal lead at 5-3 heading into the second intermission.

Despite having three chances on the power play in the third period, the Gladiators were unable to find the net, despite firing 16 shots on Reading goaltender Matt Dalton. Playing 6-on-4 for the final 1:33 Gwinnett still had trouble getting set up in the attacking zone, and Ryan Cruthers used his body to push the puck into an empty Gwinnett net with 10 seconds to cap the scoring with a final of 6-3.

Cruthers finished with two goals and two assists to lead all skaters in the game, while Andrew Sarauer had three assists, and Daniel Steiner chipped in with two goals, including the game winner in the second period. Mike McLean had two assists for the Gladiators, as eight different skaters had at least a point in the losing effort.

Matt Dalton finished with 41 saves for the Royals, as he claimed his 20th victory of the season, while Gwinnett's David Brown made just 23 saves on 28 shots in the loss.

Gwinnett went 2-for-8 on the power play, while keeping the Royals off the board in four man-advantages, but the Royals' four even strength goals and two shorthanded markers made the difference in the game.

The Gladiators' post season hopes took a big hit with the loss, as they fell to 30-29-4-3 and remain in 10th place in the standings. The Royals leapfrogged the Toledo Walleye into the seventh position in the American Conference standings with 73 points, improving to 34-27-1-4. Each team has six games remaining in the regular season.

The Gladiators continue their home stand on Saturday, when they take on the 6th-place Florida Everblades at 7:05 p.m. before wrapping up the two-game series on Sunday afternoon at 4:05 p.m.

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ECHL Stories from March 24, 2010


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