Stingrays Rally Past Gladiators
Published on December 26, 2009 under ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release
The South Carolina Stingrays scored four unanswered goals, including three in the third period to rally past the Gwinnett Gladiators 4-3 in front of 5,377 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center Saturday night. The Gladiators jumped out to a quick lead on Matt Francis' two first period goals less than five minutes into the opening frame and built it to a 3-0 lead in the second but were unable to hold on against the league-leading Stingrays.
The Gladiators struck first at 2:39 of the opening period on a power play goal after South Carolina's Nate Kiser went off for hooking at 1:21. Matt Francis scored his third goal of the season, knocking home a rebound in front of the net after South Carolina net minder Todd Ford parried away shots from Tim Miller and Pat Galivan.
Francis wasted no time notching his second goal of the game just two minutes later, tipping in a pass from Scott Marchesi on the near-side post for his fourth goal of the season, giving the Gladiators an early 2-0 lead over the Stingrays.
The Gladiators continued to dominate the pace of the game throughout the period building a 17-11 margin in shots and killed off a brief South Carolina 5-on-3 late in the frame to keep the Stingrays off the board.
The Gladiators continued their heavy pressure in the second and were kept from scoring only by goaltender Todd Ford, who made several point blank saves, including an impressive glove save to rob Adam Berti from the low slot and a break a breakaway attempt by Michael Forney.
But the Gladiators would finally get another one past Ford at 13:21 of the middle period in a mad scramble in front of the South Carolina goal. Ford was caught out of position after making two initial saves, but Pat Galivan collected the puck near the bottom of the right faceoff circle and lifted a shot over a sprawling Ford and through traffic to put the Gladiators up 3-0. Picking up assists on the play were Jason Lawrence and Scott Mifsud, his first point since notching an assist in a win over the Stingrays on November 20th prior to his injury.
But it was all South Carolina from that point forward.
The Stingrays erased Gwinnett net minder Danny Taylor's shutout bid with three minutes remaining in the second period with a power play goal from Matt Fornatero, after Matt Francis went off for tripping at 16:12. Fornatero took a pass from Trent Campbell in the high slot and beat Taylor with a blazing slap shot low on the blocker side, to cut the Gladiators' lead back down to two.
Shots at the end of two periods were 30-21 in favor of Gwinnett.
The Stingrays cut the Gladiators' lead down to just one on Spencer Carbery's sixth of the season. His shot from the slot deflected off of Gwinnett defenseman Tim Filangieri's stick blade and just out of reach of Taylor's glove and into the back of the net, making the score 3-2 at 4:41 of the third period.
South Carolina tied the game at three on Matt Fornatero's second goal of the night at 16:03, and took a 4-3 lead less than a minute later on Trent Campbell's unassisted go-ahead tally at 16:56. From there, the Stingrays would hold on down the stretch, for the come-from-behind victory, as the Gladiators' home ice struggles continued.
Danny Taylor finished with 29 saves on the night, while Todd Ford stopped 35 shots for his league-leading 16th win of the season.
Gwinnett finished 1-5 on the power play, and South Carolina went 1-3 with the extra man.
The Gladiators fall to 5-8-0-1 at home, and 14-10-2-1 overall, while the Stingrays improve to 23-7-1-3, with their 14th victory in their last 15 games.
Fornatero and Carbery each turned in two points to lead the Stingrays, and Gwinnett's Matt Francis doubled his season goals total to four in just two minutes and four seconds in the opening period.
The Gladiators return to the Arena at Gwinnett Center tomorrow afternoon with a South Division match up against the Charlotte Checkers at 4:05 p.m.
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