Gladiators Star Wars Night

Tonight was the yearly "Star Wars Night" at the Atlanta Gladiators game, and this time Nate came along with us.  I had the Star Wars music playing in the car, and we got there about an hour early, because as always, there were plenty of characters from the Star Wars universe here.  One interesting section of the 501st were the Mandalorians, who seem to be increasing in number.  I think one attraction to that group is the costuming, which isn't quite as strict as the other uniforms and costuming that exist.  For example, check out the precise nature of this Boba Fett that I met just inside.

Amazing!  This was my favorite costume of the night.  But we met a lot of costumed characters walking about the lobby, posing for pictures with visitors, and stopping to talk with us.  We had a lot of conversations, actually.  Pretty cool!

Here we are on the escalator - we usually get the club level seating, front row at the center - it's easier to see things below, a great view of the action and not too far away.  Before we really got to our seats though, we were out there meeting with a lot of those characters and posing for pictures too.

Oh, here's a different character.  It's Maximus, the dog mascot for the Gladiators, usually in a gladiator costume, but today dressed as Han Solo.  

And here's Maddie and Nate interacting with a Mandalorian with a fairly large weapon.  And below:  Bo Katan, Jango Fett and little Grogu.

We had dinner at the club level restaurant up top, which is great because it's not so crowded up there.  Also, the food choices were good, plus you could see everyone warming up on the ice from there.  Maddie's got her Mighty Ducks jersey on, ready for some hockey action, which was about to get going!

What a night, and what a game.  This was the first time the Atlanta Gladiators ever faced the Greensboro Gargoyles.  The first period was a scoreless affair, but our goalie was unquestionably the star of the entire night.  I think the other team doubled our shots on goal, something like 36 to 18 shots.  And they never scored once.  

This guy was incredible.  What a fantastic night by our goalies, this one above in the net for most of the night.  As far as offense goes, we finally broke free a little into the second period and although we didn't look anywhere near as organized, man what a shot.  Might be my favorite of the night:  it was a hard slap shot off the backboard that rebounded back so quickly that it might as well have been a pass to the one who was coming in to slap it into the goal.  Huge moment, and a huge shift in momentum.  Later on, there was this shot here.

 

Through all those defenders and up and into the net from above.  Wow.  It was 2-0 at the second period, and the other team, the Gargoyles, had some catching up to do.  Meanwhile, there was the usual Star Wars fun for the entire night.  There was Star Wars music playing, all kinds of lightsabers in the crowd, and even the hockey jerseys were customized to look somewhat like stormtrooper uniforms.  And in between periods, there were girls' ice skating teams doing a fun little routine:

It was super fun as always, and our seats were perfect for seeing the entire game.  We had a lot of fun!

Nice Stormtrooper Jerseys!

The bonus was that we won tonight, 3-0.  Everyone had a great time, and it was just nice to finally see a victory.  We've had a bit of a drought with watching a winning game - so tonight came as a really pleasant surprise.  It was Nate's first hockey game too - he really enjoyed it.

It took us a while to get out of the parking lot, but getting home was easy tonight.  We had fun!