by Jack Ziskin

DULUTH, GA. — The birthday boy T.J. Friedman scored twice and added an assist in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Atlanta Gladiators.  The Icemen earn a point on the road, and three of the four new players acquired in Monday's trade each recorded points, with two of them, Hillman and Bouquot each scoring a goal. 

Will Hillman and Jacques Bouquot, fresh off a plane from Toledo figuratively, if not literally, scored their first career goals as Icemen.  Lincoln Griffin found the back of the net as well.

All five goal scorers tonight started the season elsewhere, and only eight of tonight’s 20 started on opening night — including Scott Ratzlaff and Peter Tischke.

Still, Atlanta held on by a thread, with T.J. Semptimphelter stoning the Icemen in the shootout after 67 minutes of electrifying action.

Alex Young scored twice and added an assist for Atlanta. Austin Roest scored once and added two helpers for the Gladiators.   Blue liners Nolan Orzeck and Brendan Less also found the back of the net for Atlanta.

Chad Nychuk added the game-winner in the shootout.

Less opened the scoring for Atlanta at 2:03 of the 1st period, and the call on the ice was upheld after a lengthy review by the officials for goaltender interference.  Nychuk and Roest garnered assists.

Adam McMaster found Friedman for a beautiful tip at 12:53 in the first frame to tie the game at 1-1. Logan Cockerill added a helper on the play.

Bouqout gave the Icemen a 2-1 lead at 10:31 of the 2nd period.  Bouqout rifled a one-timer, his fourth tally of the season, on a shot from the slot off a beautiful feed from Hillman, who picked up his first point as an Icemen on the play. Brayden Hislop garnered an assist, the first of two on the night.

Alex Young netted the equalizer less than a minute later — 59 seconds to be exact — to make it 2-2.
Young put it off the back of Ratzlaff and in. Mickey Burns and Cody Sylvester picked up helpers.

Orzeck fired a shot from the slot that went off Ratzlaff and on to give the Gladiators a 3-2 lead at 1:37 in the final frame. Mickey Burns and Sylvester added assists on the goal.

Friedman responded at 3:39 with his third goal as an Icemen and his 8th of the season to knot things up at 3-3. Friedman carried it across the slot and shot it across his body to beat Semptimphelter. Holden Wale and Patrick Bajkov picked up assists.

41 seconds later, Lincoln Griffin scored his third as an Icemen and his 10th of the season at 4:20 in the 3rd period to make it 4-3 Icemen. Friedman forced a turnover, Griffin was left all alone, and the savvy vet slipped it by the Gladiators netminder.  Friedman picked up the lone assist to collect his third and final point of the game, doubling his point total with Jacksonville as a move to center and new linemates brought his game to a new level.

Austin Roest buried a rebound to score his first ECHL goal at 6:06 to tie it at 4-4 in the third frame.
Less and Mike McNamee garnered assists.

Hillman scored his first as an Icemen at 12:22 on the power play to make it 5-4 Jacksonville. Hillman redirected a shot by Colby Ambrosio, who picked up his first point as an Icemen, to give Jacksonville a 5-4 lead. Hislop added his second assist of the game.

Alex Young added his second of the night, a 6-on-5 goal, at 19:15 to tie the game at 5-5.  Young sniped from below the right wing dot, Roest and Nychuk picked up assists.

Nychuk scored the game-winning, shootout goal to seal the win for Atlanta 6-5.  

The new-look Icemen return home on Saturday to battle South Carolina at 7:00 p.m.