Glads Beat Idaho in OT Thriller

Mike Merrifield would bury the game winner in overtime Friday night to give the Gladiators a 5-4 win over the Idaho Steelheads in Boise. A back-and-forth contest from the start, Atlanta managed to capitalize on the ECHL’s new 3-on-3 overtime format to snag their fourth straight win. The hottest goal scorer in the ECHL, Derek Nesbitt, continued his league-leading goal scoring streak to six games with the first goal of the contest. Nesbitt received a cross-ice pass from Garry Nunn and one-timed the puck over the blocker of the Steelheads starting goalie, Philippe Desrosiers. Nunn increased a scoring streak of his own to eight games with the assist on the night’s first goal. Idaho tied the game at one on an Emil Molin goal. The Swedish forward collected his third of the season on a shot from the slot after a Jefferson Dahl centering pass from behind the net. Rob Linsmayer got credit for the secondary assist and now has points in five straight games. Tyler Murovich earned his second goal in as many games :48 seconds after the first Idaho notch. Mike Merrifield picked up an assist in his second straight game after sending the puck in front to Murovich waiting at the top of the crease. Atlanta’s alternate captain scooped the puck in past Derosiers to give the Gladiators the 2-1 lead. The Steelheads equaled the score again with just over eight minutes left in the first. Dahl notched his second point of the night and his fourth goal of the season. The Atlanta, GA native Zach Kamrass, got the lone assist on the goal that tied the game at two. Atlanta took the lead yet again on a second-period tally from Nate Condon. The Wisconsin native took a pass from Tyler Shiplo who created a turnover in the neutral zone. Condon blew past both Steelhead defenders and slid the puck in under Derosiers on the breakaway for his second goal of the season. Idaho equaled the score for the third time on the evening with just six seconds left in the middle period. Dahl sent a slap shot in past Gladiators goalie Matt Ginn from the high slot for his second of the night. Molin and Kamrass both received assists to give them multi-point evenings on the powerplay goal. Brock Higgs took advantage of an Atlanta powerplay and scored for the second consecutive game early in period three. Higgs had his centering pass deflect in off the Steelheads defenseman Corbin Baldwin. Nunn and Yuen both notched their second points of the game with the assists on Higgs fourth goal of the season and the second powerplay marker of the game for Atlanta. Idaho erased the Gladiator lead once again as Molin registered his second goal of the game at the 11:16 mark of the third period. Linsmayer sent a pass from behind the net to a wide-open Molin who made no mistake for his fourth of the year. Cole Martin was given credit for the secondary assist on the game-tying tally. The game would shift to 3-on-3 overtime with both teams looking for the extra point in the standings. Higgs maneuvered around the Steelheads zone and eventually found Merrifield behind the defense on the backdoor with :58 seconds left in OT. Merrifield sent the puck into the wide-open net giving himself, along with Higgs, multi-point evenings and the fourth straight victory for Atlanta. The Gladiators now increase to 11 points on the young season in the standings. In the overtime loss, Idaho earned a single point to improve to 10 points on the campaign.