SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Savannah Ghost Pirates, proud ECHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers, dropped a special teams battle to the Atlanta Gladiators, 4–3, on Sunday afternoon at Enmarket Arena.
Atlanta opened the scoring late in the first period when Carson Denomie forced a turnover and scored from the right side with 39 seconds remaining to make it 1–0 after one.
Savannah answered on the power play 8:18 into the second period as Dennis Cesana found Cristophe Tellier in the slot, where he lifted a shot into the net to tie the game 1–1. Noah Giesbrecht recorded the secondary assist.
The Gladiators responded with a power-play goal of their own moments later when Cody Sylvester set up Isak Walther, who fired a shot into the left corner to give Atlanta a 2–1 lead.
Following an Atlanta match penalty, the Ghost Pirates capitalized to even the score again as Will Riedell’s shot found the back of the net, with assists from Nicholas Zabaneh and Jaxsen Wiebe, making it 2–2.
Atlanta regained the lead late in the period when Mike McNamee scored on the power play with 15 seconds remaining, sending the Gladiators into the intermission ahead 3–2.
Savannah tied the game once more early in the third period as Zabaneh buried the rebound of a Riedell shot just 2:17 into the frame to make it 3–3.
The Gladiators took the lead for good at the 7:16 mark of the third when Joey Cipollone one-timed a shot from the left circle on a 5-on-3 power play to make it 4–3.
T.J. Semptimphelter earned the win for Atlanta, stopping 29 of 32 shots, while Noah Giesbrecht made 21 saves on 25 shots for Savannah.
The Ghost Pirates hit the road Wednesday to begin a nine-game road trip against the Florida Everblades. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed live on FloHockey and broadcast on Mixlr. Tickets and additional information about upcoming home games are available at ghostpirateshockey.com.
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