Fretter and Painchaud take a turn in Gwinnett

It's a bit of a revolving door on the Gladiators roster, as Colton Fretter and Chad Painchaud were assigned to the team on Thursday, down from the Chicago Wolves. Both are here just for the weekend on this current assignment.

And both scored late in the game tonight against Mississippi. Fretter’s was an easy one, an empty netter, but Painchaud’s was a high-difficulty shot, scored on the backhand on a 2-on-1 rush. Painchaud looked a bit rusty to start the game, with some really errant passes, but he is coming off an injury (MCL sprain), so that's somewhat to be expected. Fretter looked good early in the game, but trailed off a bit. He had a couple scoring chances in the slot.

"They both played hard," coach Jeff Pyle said. "I know they're probably both disappointed to be here right now, but still -- better to be here playing than not at all."


Fretter wore #4, since his normal #7, which he has worn since he was a kids taken by rookie Dinos Stamoulis. Painchaud wore #8. Fretter very nearly injured me via the photo hole at warmups, and I have a nice shot of it too. I don't think he realized what he was doing because he looked as surprised as I did. Once he saw I was fine, he smiled.

In other news, Mike Vigilante is expected back from Manitoba after this weekend, so there won't be a need to name a third captain on the young season.