Atlanta Gets O'Connor and Pinkston from Milwaukee

The Atlanta Gladiators announced Tuesday that the Nashville Predators have reassigned goalie Matt O’Connor from the Milwaukee Admirals to the team, and Milwaukee has also loaned the Gladiators defenseman Rick Pinkston.

O’Connor, 25, comes to Atlanta after appearing in two games this season for the AHL’s Admirals. The Sault Ste. Marie, ON native has one game of NHL experience where he started for the Ottawa Senators and stopped 31 of 34 shots in a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on October 11, 2015. The 6-foot-6, 205-pound goaltender has just two games of ECHL experience with the Wichita Thunder during the 2016-17 campaign, but has spent most of his pro career in the AHL with Binghamton and Milwaukee accumulating 73 total games. O’Connor played three full seasons at Boston University prior to signing with Ottawa as a free agent during the summer of 2015. The third-year pro had a standout senior season with the Terriers in 2014-15 going 25-4-4 with a 2.18 goals-against-average and 0.927 save percentage in addition to backstopping his team all the way to the NCAA’s National Championship game.

Pinkston, 27, joins the Gladiators after starting the season with the Norfolk Admirals of the ECHL. The third-year pro spent his first full season of professional hockey split between the Allen Americans of the ECHL and San Jose Barracuda of the AHL. The Trenton, MI native skated in all 16 playoff games and notched four points (0-4-4) for the Americans in 2015-16 and helped the club capture the Kelly Cup Championship.

During the 2016-17 campaign, the four-year Dartmouth College product earned two points (0-2-2) and a plus-three rating in 20 games for the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals and seven points (2-5-7) and a plus-three rating in 20 games for the ECHL’s Manchester Monarchs. Overall the 6-foot-1, 201-pound defender has played 32 AHL games for Springfield, San Jose and Milwaukee where he has amassed three assists and a plus-five rating.

The Atlanta Gladiators 15th Anniversary season continues at the Infinite Energy Arena on Friday, December 1st against the Florida Everblades at 7:35 PM. For ticket information, visit the official team website at www.atlantagladiators.com or call the main office line at 770-497-5100.

The Gladiators are members of the ECHL, the nation’s premier "AA" hockey league. All home games are played at the 10,867-seat Infinite Energy Arena, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth – where parking is always free. The Gladiators have established an unrivaled commitment to excellence, maintaining a distinctive reputation for affordable and family-friendly sports entertainment and consistently ranked as one of the top “Things To Do” in the Atlanta area and across the North Georgia region.For all the latest team news, contests, and more visit AtlantaGladiators.com, or “like” the Gladiators on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AtlantaGladiators), follow the team on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ATLGladiators), Instagram (www.instagram.com/atlgladiators) or Snapchat (www.snapchat.com) at "gladshockey".

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