Evansville, In.: The Thunderbolts welcomed over 5,500 fans into Ford Center for their home opener on Saturday night as they raised their 2024-25 President’s Cup Championship banner to the rafters, but fell 5-1 to the Quad City Storm. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Tuesday, October 28th against the Huntsville Havoc at 10:00am CT.
The Thunderbolts had a rough first period and were outshot 13-4, and with only seven seconds remaining, the Storm took the lead as Leif Mattson scored on a power play. Just over a minute into the second period, Mattson scored again on a breakaway to extend the lead to 2-0. Evansville got their game going from there and generated far more offensive opportunity, however Quad City again managed to extend their lead at 11:06, with Tommy Tsicos scoring on a redirection to make it 3-0. A late net-front scramble in the Storm zone led to the highlight of the period, a heavyweight bout between Jordan Simoneau and Quad City’s Jakub Boll, with Simoneau knocking down Boll with several big left hand punches. Early in the third period, Quad City extended their lead to 4-0 at 2:54 off a rebound goal from Devin Sanders. Evansville finally broke the Storm shutout at 11:03 as Connor Federkow scored off the rush on a power play from Kristian Stead to make it a 4-1 game. With the Evansville net empty late, Mattson scored to round out the hat trick with 1:58 remaining, 5-1 the final score.
Federkow scored Evansville’s lone goal while Kristian Stead finished with 34 saves on 38 shots on goal. The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Friday, November 14th at Ford Center, with the season series tied 1-1.
