Squirts: On Saturday, the Squirts faced off against WHK in a battle of the top two teams in the division. WHK jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Gladiators fought back for a 7-3 win. In net, Nate Wilson was tested early and often, stopping 26 of 29 shots for the win. The Gladiator defense proved to be the difference in the game, holding the blue line in the offensive zone and clearing the puck in the defensive zone while contributing on five of seven goals. Patrick Tripp led the effort with one goal and two assists, Bree Killion added two assists and John Goll and Mike Brown each added an assist. The offense was led by Tommy Clavell with four goals, Brayden Cannon with one goal and three assists, and Ben Hebbel with one goal and one assist. The great fore-checking of Liz Kilpatrick, Brayden Hathon and Kevin Place helped spur the Gladiators to a great team win.
On Sunday, the Squirts were matched up with Duxbury. Mike Brown got the Gladiators on the board early in the first period with his first goal of the season coming from a wrist shot. Hebbel added his first of two later in the first and Tripp added one more late in the first to give the Gladiators a 3-0 lead after one period. The second period started slowly for the Gladiators, but after giving up one goal the team got going with a Cannon goal to regain the three-goal lead. In the third period, Hebbel added his second of the game followed by Hathon’s first of the game on a feed from Killion. In net, Wilson played strong, stopping 12 of 13 shots faced.
Pee Wees: Gateway Gladiators Pee Wees dominated Duxbury on Saturday. In the first period, Nathan Ribeiro put Gateway on the board early with an assist from Ty Rebeiro. Rebeiro added an unassisted point. Thomas Leger put in an unassisted followed by Matthew Paling with an unassisted. Connor MacLeod put one in with assists from Paling and Leger. The second period was just as consistent as the first. MacLeod added his second of the game assisted by Ribeiro. Rebeiro came in with another goal assisted by Ribeiro. Joe Urnek slid in a nice one with assist from Ribeiro. Ribeiro then came in with a quick one, clearing the goalie and getting the point assisted by Rebeiro. Rebeiro then completed his hat trick, unassisted. In the third, Duxbury added the pressure, but Ribeiro was able to get one more in for Gateway with an assist from Leger and Urnek ending the game 11- 0 and giving goalie Ryker King the shut-out.
Bantams: In the spirit of the holidays, the Gladiators Bantam team donned their ugly holiday sweaters to their game this weekend against Plymouth. They skated away with a 6-1 victory as well. The scoring started early in the first period when Quirino doCanto made a couple of nice dekes on the defenseman and the goalie, putting home his first of the day; assisting on the play were Tyler Lovendale and Will Goldman. Jack Martins found the back of the net less than a minute later on a feed from Matt Cadieux. The score remained that way until early in the second period when Cadieux took a pass from fellow blue liner, Steven Old, and beat the goalie with a wrist shot. Plymouth scored shortly after that, making it 3-1, until Lovendale took a feed from doCanto and finished with a backhand shot, as he was falling to the ice. Just 15 seconds later, doCanto scored his second goal, assisted by Robert Maloney and Lovendale. With the score 4-1 early in the third period, doCanto finished the hat trick, beating the goalie with a wrist shot over his shoulder. Martins finished the scoring one minute later, stealing a pass and putting it by the goalie, with a hard wrist shot. Alex DeMarco played well in net for the Gladiators, stopping 19 of 20 shots he faced.