GREENVILLE, SC - The Atlanta Gladiators dropped a 9-3 contest to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits Sunday afternoon. F Mason Baptista captured a three-point game, leading the nine Swamp Rabbits that registered multi-point games.
Baptista tallied his first goal of the afternoon 3:27 into the contest, when D Dylan MacPherson and D Chad Duschene assisted on his 11th goal of the year. Atlanta answered when the team's leading goal scorer F Samuel Asselin gathered a pass from F Avery Peterson to best G Jeremy Helvig on a short-handed tally. Duschene answered the Gladiators' goal to give the home team a 2-1 first intermission lead.
Greenville F Karl El-Mir joined the scoring as he, Baptista, and MacPherson netted three straight Swamp Rabbits goals to balloon the lead to 5-1. Atlanta forwards Thomas Frazee and Anthony Collins assisted D Joel Messner on his 6th goal of the season to cut into the Swamp Rabbits lead. D Cameron Heath answered Messner's score to give Greenville a 6-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.
Early in the third period, F Logan Nelson won a face-off to the halfboards where D Chris Forney wristed a quick shot through traffic and beyond Helvig to bring Atlanta within three once again. The early momentum was snuffed out as Greenville ripped off three straight scores to cap the game. F Patrick Pajkov, F Kamerin Nault, and F Lincoln Griffin all found the back of the net to lift Greenville to the 9-3 win.
The Gladiators hit the ice again on Friday when they visit the Reading Royals at 7:00 PM. Atlanta return to home ice on Tuesday February 11th when they host the Florida Everblades in the annual Education Day game at 10:35 AM.