Gladiators home opener

Last night the Gwinnett Gladiators had their home opener, beating Pensacola for the second night in a row. They are now 2-0.

The lines as they currently stand:
Mike Hamilton - Jeff Campbell - Derek Nesbitt
Lou Dickenson - Dirk Southern - Andy Brandt
Ryan Walsh/Myles Stoesz - Stuart MacRae - Mike Vigilante
Jeff Mason - Jon Awe
Jim Jackson - Jamie Milam
Ryan Mahrle - Dino Stamoulis

Stoesz fought Daniel Sullivan in the second period, a pretty mundane fight, but the crowd liked it and Stoesz egged them on as the skated to the bench.

Craig Kowalski played both Friday and Saturday nights. Dan Turple is currently called up to Chicago due to the trickle down from Kari Lehtonen's injury. But, the scuttlebutt is that Turps may not be gone for the entire time of the injury. We'll see what develops.

In the meantime, the Gladiators will hang onto Ervins Mustukovs, who had some success with Toledo last year.

I talked to Ondrej Pavelec's former teammate Jean-Claude Sawyer (Pensacola) last night about how Pavelec was to play with. Nothing groundbreaking was learned, more of a confirmation of what was already known. But it's always good to talk to a lot of people because you never know what will come of it. I got to tell him that Pavelec made his NHL debut and his face lit up and asked "how did he do?"