Evansville, In.: Despite a second period rally to tie the game, the Thunderbolts suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Quad City Storm at Ford Center on Friday night. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Saturday, January 3rd against the Quad City Storm at 7:00pm CT.
In a very close first period in which Evansville only trailed in shots by a 14-10 margin, the Storm scored the game’s first goal on a power play as Nick McHugh scored on a net-front redirection at 9:56. Evansville played their best hockey in the second period, outshooting the Storm 15-14 and tying the game at the 11:04 mark as Tyson Gilmour scored from Matthew Hobbs and Scott Kirton. Evansville fell behind at the start of the third period and could not recover, as Jesper Tarkiainen scored at 1:15, Devin Sanders at 6:32, and Sanders again with a shorthanded goal at 13:38 to put the game away, 4-1 Quad City.
Gilmour scored Evansville’s goal while Cody Karpinski stopped 35 of 39 shots on goal in his Thunderbolts debut. The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Saturday, January 3rd at Ford Center, with the season series tied 4-4.
