 Pelham, Ala.: In a back-and-forth thriller, the Thunderbolts tied their game against the Birmingham Bulls four times and took the game to overtime, just coming up short 6-5, but picked up another standings point on Friday night in Pelham, tying for 1st place in the SPHL standings. The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Friday, December 2nd against the Quad City Storm at 7:00pm CT. For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), go to EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or visit the Ford Center Ticket Office.
Birmingham’s Michael Gillespie struck first at 2:27 of the first period to give Birmingham a 1-0 lead. Evansville responded while shorthanded, as Scott Kirton scored on a breakaway from Mike Ferraro at 6:22 to tie the game 1-1. At 12:49, the Bulls regained the lead as Mike Davis scored to put the Bulls in front 2-1. Only 1:14 into the second period, Ferraro scored from Felix Sasser to tie the game once again, 2-2. Birmingham again retook the lead at 5:16, as Stepan Timofeyev made it 3-2 Birmingham.
At 11:15 of the second period Fredrik Wink scored his first goal of the game, assisted by Kirton and Ferraro to make it a 3-3 game, before Carson Rose scored 45 seconds later at 12:00 to give the Bulls a 4-3 lead. At 14:39, Wink scored once again from Aaron Huffnagle and Dillon Hill to tie the game for the fourth time, and later at 17:40 Cameron Cook scored to give Evansville their first lead of the night, assisted by Andrew Shewfelt and Matthew Barron. The lone goal of the third period came from Birmingham’s Jordan Martin to tie the game 5-5 at 6:49. In overtime, Jake Pappalardo scored the game-winning goal for Birmingham at the 2:46 mark.
Wink led the way with two goals, Ferraro scored one goal and two assists, Kirton finished with one goal and one assist, and Cook scored one goal.  Steeves stopped 37 of 43 shots faced in net. These two teams meet again on November 19th at the Pelham Civic Complex.
