Evansville, In.: After a tough first five minutes, the Thunderbolts achieved ignition, dominating the Mayhem through the game’s majority, and defeating Macon 8-2 in front of almost 5,000 fans at Ford Center on Saturday Night. The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Friday, February 3rd  against the Fayetteville Marksmen at 7:00pm CT. For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), go to EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or visit the Ford Center Ticket Office.
Macon’s Rhett Kingston opened the scoring on their first shot only 20 seconds in to begin a 10-1 shot run for Macon, supplemented by two early Mayhem power plays. The Thunderbolts managed to fend off the Macon opportunities, and after the first media timeout they resumed play with instantly renewed purpose. Brendan Harrogate tied the game at 7:28 on the power play, assisted by Aaron Huffnagle and Felix Sasser. Later at 14:37, Kyle Thacker scored from Fredrik Wink and Mathieu Cloutier to give Evansville their first lead, 2-1. Just over a minute later at 15:55, Brett Radford scored from Harrogate and Scott Kirton to make it a 3-1 lead, before Andrew Shewfelt scored from Joseph Leonidas and Wink at 18:36 on the power play to make it a 4-1 Evansville lead through the first period.
In the second period, Cloutier scored at 4:18 from Huffnagle to make it a 5-1 lead, which remained unchanged until 19:23, when Cameron Cook rifled a shot into the net right off a faceoff win from Matthew Hobbs to extend the Thunderbolts lead to 6-1 going into the second intermission. In the third period, Aaron Aragon scored for Macon to trim the Thunderbolts lead to 6-2 at 10:19, before goals from Cloutier at 14:16 from Huffnagle, and Leonidas from Wink and Huffnagle at 17:00 rounded out the scoring in Evansville’s 8-2 victory.
               Cloutier finished with two goals and one assist, Harrogate and Leonidas each finished with one goal and one assist, while Shewfelt, Cook, Thacker and Radford each scored one goal. Aaron Huffnagle tied a franchise record with his four assists, while Wink tallied three assists.  Zane Steeves stopped 43 of 45 shots faced in net for his 11th win of the season.  The Thunderbolts and Mayhem do not meet again this regular season.
