Forward Rylan Galiardi picked up a hat trick against his former team, and the Gwinnett Gladiators rebounded from a three-goal second period deficit to beat the Florida Everblades 7-6.

Galiardi scored the final three goals of the night the propel Gwinnett (10-3-1-0) to its seventh win in a row. The Gladiators remain atop the South Division and Eastern Conference, and are the first team in the league to surpass 20 points.

Heading into the third tied at five, Galiardi took over. After scoring late in the second to tie it, the Calgary native deflected a power play point shot by Dallas Jackson past Florida (5-5-0-2) goalie Pat Nagle 6:11 into the period to put Gwinnett up 6-5. Casey Pierro-Zabotel set-up Jackson for his second helper on the night.

Galiardi wasn’t finished. He completed the hat trick with what would prove to be the game-winning goal, hammering a rebound by Nagle at the 8:13 mark with Ouellet assisting. Florida tacked on a late goal by Alex Hutchings to close the gap, but the Gladiators stood tall and closed it out outshooting Florida 40-30.

It was the second three-goal comeback for the Gladiators this season. Gwinnett also rebounded from a 3-0 deficit on October 21st in Greenville for a 4-3 win. Galiardi’s hat trick on the road was the first since Pat Galivan netted three on January 14, 2011 in Greenville.

Gwinnett got off to a flying start, scoring the first two goals of the game. Chris Clackson tapped in a rebound off a Ryan Donald shot 6:09 in, with Tyler Murovich tacking on the second assist. Christian Ouellet added a power play goal from Dallas Jackson and Casey Pierro-Zabotel just 1:11 later to push the lead to 2-0.

Florida rallied for the final three goals of the period however, with Mathieu Roy (9:25), Matt Marquardt (10:51) and Brody Sutter (12:58) all finding the back of the net.

The Everblades extended to lead to 4-2 just six seconds into the second, with Bobby Raymond burying his fourth goal of the season off a breakaway. Defenseman Charles Landry made it a 5-2 game at 2:39, and things were looking bleak for Gwinnett.

That’s when a couple of former Everblades led the comeback bid. Kyle Lawson’s second goal of the season at 9:59 cut the deficit to two, as the former Blade lofted a shot from the far point past Nagle on the power play with Donald and Tony Lucia assisting.

15 seconds later forward Murovich deposited a rebound in off a wraparound try to pull Gwinnett within one. Evan Bloodoff extended his point streak to seven games with an assist, and Sean Duddy also had a helper.

Galiardi brought the Gladiators even, finding the back of the net at 14:17 beating Nagle five-hole on the power play from the slot. Bloodoff and Ouellet assisted, and the score stayed at 5-5 into the third.

The Gladiators wrap up the four-game southern swing Sunday at 3:00 p.m. EST in Orlando.