PHN’s Best Shots of the Game: Gladiators drop Icemen, 5-3

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Atlanta Gladiators, behind five different goal scorers, jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and never looked back, as they went on to defeat the Jacksonville Icemen 5-3 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in front of 8,067 fans on Friday night.

Kaid Oliver, Reece Vitelli and Zach Yoder all contributed first period goals for the visiting Gladiators to take a big lead into the first intermission.

Zach Jordan’s short-handed goal 3:19 into the middle frame put the Icemen on the board, cutting the Atlanta lead to 3-1.

Mike Pelech scored the eventual game-winning goal for Atlanta just over a minute and a half later, assisted by Gabe Guertler.

Jacksonville chipped away at the lead again just 1:10 later on an Easton Brodzinski goal at 5:53.

Not to be outdone, Tyler Kobryn netted an insurance goal at 9:30 to give the Gladiators a 5-2 lead at the second intermission.

Jacksonville added a late goal at 18:37 of the third from Derek Lodermeier, but the damage was already done as Tyler Parks would go on to pick up his 13th win of the year behind a 36-save effort.

The win keeps the Gladiators (22-11-2-0) in a dead heat for the South Division lead with the South Carolina Stingrays (21-5-3-1).