Atlanta Gladiators were on the rocks during tough loss on Margaritaville Night! | ECHL

Gladiators inter Margaritaville threads on Thursday night. Photo: @ATLGLADIATORS

Coming off a fierce win against one of the East's top contenders, the Jacksonville Icemen, the Atlanta Gladiators were looking to carry over that energy from the night prior against the Florida Everblades during their Margaritaville night. As their home games come to an end and as they seek to make it to the end of the season with a few more wins, this team is playing hungry. 

In the night prior, the Atlanta Gladiators (21-42-3-1) shut out the Jacksonville Icemen (41-20-5-1) with a 4-0 victory. This was done as they spurred three early goals in the first period. Atlanta surged from the start, with Brendan Hoffman initiating the scoring frenzy with a wrap-around goal, followed swiftly by Luke Prokop's shot from the point. Parker AuCoin then sealed the fiery start with his first team goal, securing Atlanta's three-goal lead. This type of performance reflected how they previously played and what game fans so much hope that the season could be a winning one. 

Although the season took quite a drop after going eight straight, they have been desperately trying to regain momentum to win the last games for their season. As the playoffs drew near, the Glads knew they were not making it; thus, any wins would be a nice cap-off for the season. As they say, it is not about how you start but how you finish. Can the Glads do a repeat for this game? That was the lingering question as the puck dropped and the game began. The Everblades came out strong and made some critical stops as the Glads tried to use speed to reach the net. 

It was evident that the Everblades would not let the Glads get any easy goals on them tonight as they had done the night before. At 11:16 in the first period, the Blades strike with a goal! Goal by #5 Zach Uens, assisted by #44 Josh Ho-Sang and #3 Zach Berzolla. Much of the first period remained back and forth with no score. The Everglades were on the tails of the Gladiators, and it seemed to be a steady Florida-led game as they ended the period. 

Once the second period started, the Everglades came out strong and attacked the net early. At 6:28, they scored their second goal to shake up the place—a goal by #19 Bobo Carpenter, assisted by #16 Ben Brar. But, the Gladiators were not going to stay down; they fought back and decided they wanted to attack the net to stay in the game. At 9:49, they achieved their first goal of scoring 2-1. Goal by #94 Parker AuCoin, assisted by #20 Reece Vitelli.

What seemed to be a turn of events was when the Gladiators seemingly got their second goal with 3:37 remaining in the second period, but the ref blew it 'no goal.' This frustrated the small crowd and grew roars to the refs, but the Glads moved on swiftly as they looked to tie the game before the period ended. However, the Glads were unable to get a goal until the end of the period. 

As the third period began, the Glads were stunned when the Everglades loaded a puck into the net for their third score of the game. They were third seconds into the period before #2 Cole Moberg, assisted by #22 Joe Pendenza and #21 Riese Zmolek, changed the score to 3-1. The fierce team that showed up the night before was gone. Although there was still time in the game, the Glads would need to move fast to catch up by two goals. There was a glimmer of hope around the 5-minute mark when the Glads shot another goal, but the referee's official review once again overturned it—still leading the Glads with just 1 goal for the game. This was the second 'no goal' that the Glads received, and one could only think of how competitive the game would have been had the score been tied with 12 minutes remaining. 

The Glads had work to do and didn't allow it to slow them down, but as time ticked away, a move would need to be made swiftly. Although, they gave it their all it was simply not enough to overtake the game. The Atlanta Gladiators lost their second of three straight home games to the Flordia Everglades 4-1, who they will see tomorrow, April 5, 2024.