Middle of the road; the Glads' 2nd of 3 consecutive games results in getting ghosted by Savannah by a 5-2 score
Coming off a much needed 5-3 win over the Savannah Ghost Pirates (only their 2nd in their last 10 games), the Atlanta Gladiators close out 2023 with 3 games in a row (December 29th through 31st, 2023), including tonight's second consecutive home game as part of the current stretch of games (December 30, 2023 at 7pm EST from the Gas South District).
Currently sitting in 12th place overall (11-16-0 with 22 points), the Glads look to leading scorers Mitchell Fossier (10 goals/17 assists/27 points), Cody Sylvester (6 goals/12 assists/18 points), and Micah Miller (9 goals/8 assists/17 points) to pace the offense and put pressure on the Ghost Pirates (who are in 14th place with a 9-16-3-1 record with 22 points). Conversely, hoping to avoid consecutive losses to the Glads, Savannah is led by Simon Pinard (12 goals/13 assists/25 points), Pat Guay (8 goals/14 assists/22 points), and Logan Drevitch (7 goals/10 assists/17 points), as they look to ramp up their offensive attack.
Atlanta sends Cole Ceci between the pipes (the goaltender is 1-0 with a 3.00 GAA and .919 save percentage). His counterpart for Savannah is Michael Bullion (7-5 with a 2.71 GAA and .913 save percentage).
Prior to the game, the Glads' Jay Powell (defense) joins us for our interview. The Nashville-native (as the Glads are the ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Nashville Predators) not only shares his professional hockey journey, but insights related to preparation for tonight's game along with the team focus during a rigorous 3-games in 3-day stretch.
Game highlights:
The Glads' Narvin Mutter nets his 4th goal in 7 games with the team (assisted by Jackson Pierson, his 10th assist of the season) on a power play opportunity during the 1st period (8:44). Along with solid team defense and penalty killing, Atlanta has a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission.
Savannah would even the score at 1 (5:23) in the 2nd period. Mike Ferraro's 1st goal of the season (assisted by Jordan Kaplan [his first assist of the year] and Sebastian Vidmar [his 5th assist of the year) gets the Ghost Pirates back in the game.
However, the Ghost Pirates' Jordan Kaplan (4th goal of the season) helps them battle back and tie the game at 2 (16:10 in the 2nd period) with an assist by Ross Armour (11th assist of the season).
Early in the 3rd period, Savannah gets on a scoring run to get some separation from Atlanta. Sebastian Vidmar would score his 4th goal of the season at the 2:47 mark of the period (assists by Jett Jones [his 3rd of the season] and Mike Ferraro [his first of the season]) to make it a 3-2 game. He would add his second goal of the game (5th of the year) at the 6:58 mark (with assists by Ferraro [his 2nd of the season] and Brandon Estes [his 11th of the season]) to stretch the lead to 4-2.
Twenty-five seconds later (7:23), Brandon Estes' 3rd goal of the season (assists by Simon Pinard [his 14th of the year] and Pat Guay [his 15th of the year]) make it a 5-2 game in favor of the Ghost Pirates and closing out the game with a win.
In addition to the 4-unanswered goals by the Ghost Pirates, the Gladiators are outshot by a 48-19 margin.
The Glads hit the road for their December 31, 2023 game in a 5pm rematch against the Ghost Pirates.
Notes: All video recorded via CCS LLC (click HERE to view the season playlist and subscribe today). Photos are provided via EmoryRose Photography (click HERE to visit their Instagram).
