Atlanta Earns Sixth Straight Road Win and Weekend Sweep of Stingrays with 2-1 OT Victory

The Atlanta Gladiators returned to action for their second matchup in as many nights with the South Carolina Stingrays on Saturday night. The two teams once again needed overtime to declare a winner, where Phil Lane netted the goal to give Atlanta the 2-1 victory.

After a scoreless opening frame, South Carolina netted the first goal of the contest with 11:11 left in the second period. Steven Whitney corralled the puck in his defensive zone and sent a cross-ice pass to Kelly Zajac on a three-on-two. Zajac then skated the puck into the offensive zone and left a pass behind to the trailer Johnny McInnis, who wristed a shot over the blocker of Gladiators goaltender Dan Vladar to put the Stingrays ahead 1-0.

The Gladiators would then bring the game back even with a power play goal with 5:51 remaining in the middle frame. Taylor Doherty knocked the puck loose in a battle with two South Carolina players on the board for Alex Gacek to pick up. The former Miami (OH) Redhawk then fired a saucer pass across the offensive zone to Derek Nesbitt who was wide open to the right of the Stingrays net. The captain then took two steps before he snapped a shot past Parker Milner to tie the game at 1-1 with his fourth goal of the year.

With neither team able to break the tie in regulation, Atlanta headed to overtime for the third straight game. 3:20 into the extra frame, Lane tapped in a rebound for his ninth goal of the season to give the Gladiators the 2-1 win. Gacek received his second assist of the night on the play, while Ben Danford added his name to the scoresheet with the secondary assist on the winning goal.

With the overtime win on road ice, Atlanta picked up their fourth straight victory and improved to 7-4-0-1 on the season. This kept the Gladiators in fourth place in the South Division with 15 points. Meanwhile, South Carolina dropped to 7-1-2-0 on the year with the loss but remained in third in the division with 16 points.

Up next, Atlanta will travel to Greenville for the first time this season for a school-day game matchup on Wednesday morning. The puck drops at 10:30am at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena between the Gladiators and Swamp Rabbits on November 15th.