Florida Takes Fourth Straight Against Atlanta with 5-1 Win

The Atlanta Gladiators returned to action at the Infinite Energy Arena on Saturday night as they fell to the Florida Everblades by a final score of 5-1. Mitchell Heard was the key component to the Everblades victory, as he notched a point on two of the five Florida goals.

Florida would open the scoring for the night with a power play tally at the 18:27 mark of the first period. Nelson Armstrong blasted in the goal for the visitors with a one-time slap shot from the point. Both Gus Young and Michael Kirkpatrick were credited with an assist on Armstrong’s second strike of the year.

The Everblades then doubled their lead with their second power play goal of the night 5:07 into the second period. This time Clark Seymour was able to rip a hard shot from the point that sailed over the glove of Matt Ginn to put the visitors ahead 2-0. Mitchell Heard picked up the primary assist on the play, while Steven Lorentz collected the secondary helper.

Just over a minute of playing time later, Atlanta struck to cut the deficit to 2-1. After Phil Lane kept the puck in the offensive zone, he sent a pass down the boards to Lindsay Sparks. The Ontario native then side-stepped by a defender and found Thomas Frazee open in the slot, who tapped in a centering pass for his second goal of the season.

Joe Cox then helped the visitors to regain their two-goal lead at the 7:34 mark of the middle frame. Heard corralled a loose puck in front of the net for the Everblades and sent a pass through two defenders to Cox. The rookie then slipped a shot into the open net to put Florida ahead 3-1.

Florida sealed the victory with two goals in the last two minutes. Zack Kamrass and Matt Berry tallied the late goals to put Florida ahead 5-1. Their second loss in as many nights left the Gladiators with a record of 0-4-0-0 and keeps Atlanta in seventh in South division without a point. Meanwhile, the Everblades improved to 4-0-0-0 and remain atop the division with eight points.

Up next, Atlanta will travel to Jacksonville, FL for the first time in Gladiators history for a matchup with their new in-division foe the Jacksonville Icemen on Thursday night. The puck drops between the Gladiators and Icemen at 7:30 on October 26 at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena.