The Atlanta Gladiators roll the the South Carolina Stingrays, 4-2, for sixth win of the season.
After watching Friday’s come-from-behind win, fans erupted with relief. It was a physical and brutal battle that looked shaky on both sides. Finally, late in the third period, Atlanta pulled away thanks to some heroics by Aidan De La Gorgendiere and Alex Whelan. What stood out the most was that Atlanta needed more intensity for much of the game. They were late to react, and the Jacksonville Icemen made them pay, skating up and down the ice with no problem. It’s easy to imagine that the South Carolina Stingrays watched that film and saw opportunities they could capitalize on. On Sunday, their matchup with Atlanta started the same way.
Whelan tried to score right out of the gate, but he missed and Atlanta came out flat, already behind many of South Carolina’s advances. The Stingrays were very efficient with their shots. Despite some incredible work by goalie Gustavs Grigals (and a Michael Marchesan Goal, his first of the season), the Gladiators found themselves down 2-1 at the end of the first period.
Almost as if he could hear the elephant in the room, Cody Sylvester attacked early in the second period with energy and aggression. Mitchell Fossier and Reece Vitelli also jump into the mix to help get more offense on the board. Fossier tried to send a puck home but missed. Moments later, he found Vitelli for the equalizer. However, the Glads could likely sense they should be down by more scores. Their aggressive play saved several shots from the Stingrays. Plus, Grigals’ attention to detail and ability to sense where the threat had Atlanta still in the game despite a difference of seven attempts on goal. The Glads take his lead and cut off what feels like a mountain of advances by South Carolina to go into the third period tied.
Barely 30 seconds into the third period, Jack Matier gets his second goal of the season, a huge one considering the circumstances. Whelan finds him for a goal that puts the Glads up 3-2. Then, minutes later, Matier strikes again with assistance from Ryan Cranford and Jackson Pierson. Glads can sense they have the Stingrays backed into a corner and have no problem adding more to their lead.
The Stingrays attempt a mad fury of shots down the stretch, but Grigals is a wall. (The man had 39 saves. THIRTY NINE.) A considerable credit also goes to the Gladiators’ core, who clamped down to fend off South Carolina. They hustled with intentionality to stop anything the Stingrays wanted to do. The Glads move to 6-0-0, earning a massive applause from the home crowd.
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