Moline, Ill.: Behind a 3-point night from Scott Kirton and another stellar showing between the pipes from Kristian Stead, the Thunderbolts defeated the Storm 4-1 in Quad City, picking up 3 out of 4 standings points on the weekend. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Wednesday, December 31st against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.
Adam Manji started the game in net for the Thunderbolts and played very well, stopping all 8 shots faced in the first half of the first period, however he was forced to leave the game due to injury and Stead took over in relief. At 18:57, the Thunderbolts capitalized on a 2-on-1 rush to take the opening lead as Matt Hobbs fed Myles Abbate for a quick wrist shot past Storm goaltender Luke Lush. Early in the second period, the Thunderbolts got a lucky break as a steep-angled shot off the rush by Kirton somehow got through Lush at 3:38 to make it 2-0 Evansville. 4:35 into the third period, Evansville made it 3-0 on a delayed Storm penalty as Matt Clark scored his first goal as a Thunderbolt, assisted by Kirton and Dilan Peters. Kirton added another goal into an empty Storm net with 2:16 remaining, assisted by Tyson Gilmour and Evan Miller to extend the Thunderbolts lead to 4-0. Unfortunately, the shutout bid was spoiled with 1:08 remaining as Savva Smirnov scored a power play goal for Quad City, finishing the score at 4-1.
Kirton led the way with two goals and an assist while Clark and Abbate scored one goal each. In goal, Stead stopped 32 of 33 shots on goal for his 12th win of the season, while Manji stopped all 8 shots faced in the game’s start before departing due to injury. The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Friday, January 2nd at Ford Center, with Evansville leading the season series 4-3.
