Once again technical difficulties mean I'm bringing this to you late. The Gladiators have been on a skid, winning only two out of their last seven games, all which have been against division rivals.

They started off on the road well enough with a decisive 6-3 victory over the Florida Everblades on Wednesday, Nov. 30th. The team scored 4 goals in the third period, including an empty-netter by Bryan Brutlag. Nikita Kashirsky, Andy Brandt and Shane Sims led points-fest with a goal and an assist each. The game was also marked by rough play that resulted in game misconducts to Gwinnett's Joey Haddad and Chris Clackson. Haddad also notched his ninth goal of the season. Marc Cheverie got his third win with 28 saves. But it all went down hill after that game.

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Hey everybody! I've been away thanks to a busted laptop. Now that that's fixed, I'm back and bringing you the latest and unfortunately not so greatest in Gwinnett Gladiators hockey from the past two weeks. The Glads are in a definite slump, earning a mere five out of a possible 12 points in their past six games.

They started off strong enough in a 4-2 victory over the South Carolina Stingrays on Friday, Nov. 18th. Will Colbert posted his first goal of the season 9 minutes into the first and Joey Haddad (say it with me now, people) extended his point streak with a goal late in the period. The second period got shaky, though. Tyler Murovich posted an unassisted goal, and the Stingrays battled back to make it 3-2. But Brian Brutlag widened the scoring deficit on a power play goal. The score remained 4-2 for the rest of the game. The Gladiators shut down the Stingrays in the third, allowing only three shots on goal. Here's hoping they can find that defensive sweet spot more often for the rest of the season. Congrats to goaltender Billy Sauer for getting the win his first game back in Gwinnett. Naturally, I was stuck in apocalyptic traffic and missed the entire game.

The next two games against South Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 19th and Sunday Nov. 20th weren't the happy success story of the Gladiators' first meeting of the season with their division rival. The Gladiators fell 3-2 on Saturday and an abysmal 6-1 on Sunday.

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 In the past week the Gwinnett Gladiators made a 4-game Northern swing to Elmira, Toledo and Chicago. They continue to struggle with consistency, posting two wins, an overtime loss and a shootout loss. Still, the team did well, claiming six out of a possible eight points on the road.

After an eventful Wednesday morning where their hotel caught on fire, the Gladiators survived until overtime against the Elmira Jackals, eventually falling 3-2. The Jackals were on the board first when Artem Demkow blasted a one-timer past Marc Cheverie. The Glads tied things up in the second period with a power play goal from Brad Miller. Elmira regained the lead shortly after, but the Gladiators came through late in the second period and tied it up again on a power play goal, this time from Joey Haddad who continued his point streak to four games. The game remained tied through the third period. Elmira’s Evan Barlow put one past Cheverie only 1:28 into overtime. Cheverie made 22 saves. The Gladiators went 2-for-6 on the power play.

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Hey, this is Ally here checking in with the first of many weekly reports on the Gwinnett Gladiators, Phoenix’s ECHL affiliate in the Peach State. A big thank you to the boys at Five for Howling for bringing me on board. Now let’s get y’all caught up on the season so far! I promise this will be shorter next week.

Week Season So Far in Review

The Gwinnett Gladiators have had a roller coaster of a season so far after opening on the road in back-to-back games against the Florida Everblades. They fell 3-2 in the first game, but pulled through with a hard-fought 2-1 victory in the second game after an eleven round shootout.

The Glads returned to Duluth on Friday, October 21st for their home opener where they blasted the Greenville Road Warriors 6-1 in front of a large, rowdy crowd. It was everybody scores night with all six goals posted by five separate players. Goaltender Marc Cheverie blocked 36 of 37 shots on goal in his first win with the Glads.

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