Pelham, Ala.: After a tough first 30 minutes against the Bulls, the Thunderbolts battled back time and time again, nearly coming back several times, but could not find the tying goals in their 6-4 loss in Pelham on Friday night. The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Sunday, January 22nd against the Huntsville Havoc at 3:00pm CT. For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), go to EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or visit the Ford Center Ticket Office.
The Bulls carried a 1-0 lead into the second period, followed by a pair of goals in the second period’s first half to open up a 3-0 lead, before the Thunderbolts rallied and made it a very close contest down the stretch. At 13:06, Alex Cohen scored from Cameron Cook and Jake Goldowski to pull the Thunderbolts back within two goals. A couple minutes later at 15:26, Felix Sasser found the back of the net, also from Cook and Goldowski, to suddenly make it 3-2.
In the opening minute of the third period, Evansville nearly tied it off a net-front passing play, however the Bulls’ Austin Lotz came out of his crease, colliding with Aaron Huffnagle to negate the scoring chance, and also draw a penalty on Evansville and halt the Thunderbolts’ momentum in the process. The Bulls scored at 4:25 to make it a 4-2 game, before Brendan Harrogate led another Thunderbolts response in scoring at 7:43, assisted by Scott Kirton and Kyle Thacker to again make it a one goal game. On the power play, Jake Pappalardo picked up a hat trick goal to again make it a multi-goal difference, 5-3 Birmingham with 7:24 remaining. Sasser however would score again with 2:26 remaining from Cook to give Evansville life once again, before a late goal from Birmingham’s Michael Gillespie with 1:20 remaining put the game to rest, 6-4 Birmingham.
               Sasser scored twice, Cohen and Harrogate scored one goal each, while Cook tallied three assists and Goldowski finished with a pair of assists. Zane Steeves stopped 28 of 34 shots faced in goal. These two teams meet again on March 16th at Pelham Civic Complex.
