Evansville, In.: The Christmas hiatus and the reset that could come with it comes at a good time for the snake-bitten Thunderbolts, who despite outshooting the Rivermen 35-23, fell 4-1 to the Rivermen at Ford Center on Saturday night. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Wednesday, December 31st against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.
Evansville outshot Peoria 13-7 in the opening frame, but the rotten offensive luck that has plagued Evansville in the past few games continued as the Rivermen took the game’s first lead with a goal by Garrett Devine at 16:53. 6:28 into the second period, Evansville finally broke through to tie the game as Eelis Laaksonen set up Derek Contessa for the tying goal, also assisted by Isaac Chapman. The Rivermen broke through twice down the stretch of the second period, with Khaden Henry scoring at 15:26 and Devine once again on a power play at 16:48 to take a 3-1 lead, extended further to 4-1 with Devine’s hat trick goal 2:59 into the third period in which the Thunderbolts outshot Peoria 13-5 but could not buy a goal.
Contessa scored Evansville’s goal while Kristian Stead stopped 19 of 23 shots. The Thunderbolts and Rivermen meet again on Sunday, January 25th in Peoria, with the season series tied 3-3.
