Pelham, Ala.:  Despite trailing by multiple goals twice, the Thunderbolts rallied to tie in the third period before dealing the Bulls only their 4th loss on home ice all season, as Evansville defeated Birmingham 5-4 in a shootout in Pelham on Monday afternoon.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Saturday, February 24th against the Peoria Rivermen, puck drop at 7:00pm CT.
Mark Zhukov scored only 38 seconds into the game to give Evansville the first lead, assisted by Benjamin Lindberg and Matt Dorsey. Birmingham managed to score twice later in the period, as Carson Rose scored at 14:24 and Drake Glover at 19:30 to put the Bulls ahead 2-1 through one period. Josh Harris scored to give the Bulls a 3-1 lead 3:04 into the second period, before a blast from Jordan Spadafore made it one-goal game again, assisted by Dorsey and Zhukov at 6:59. On their first power play, Birmingham took a 4-2 lead as Joe Colatarci scored at 16:21. The Thunderbolts comeback began at 17:52 of the second period, as a Matthew Hobbs breakaway was stopped, but the rebound put in by Brady Lynn, with Bruno Kreisz also picking up an assist to make it a 4-3 Evansville deficit.
It took only 1:05 into the third period for Evansville to tie the game at 4-4, with Myles Abbate scoring from Dmitry Yushkevich and Dorsey. The game remained tied, although Evansville outshot the Bulls 16-10 and nearly took the lead multiple times. Between the second and third periods, Brendahn Brawley was replaced with Ty Taylor, who did not allow a single goal in the third period.  In overtime, the Thunderbolts came closest to winning, with Yushkevich hitting the post with just over a minute remaining. In the shootout, Nikita Kozyrev scored first in round one for Birmingham to give them a 1-0 lead, before Brady Lynn tied the shootout in the top of round two. Lincoln Hatten scored in round four to put Evansville ahead 2-1, but Carson Rose tied the shootout at the bottom of round five to keep the shootout going. Nikita Kozyrev appeared to win the game for Birmingham in round six, however the goal was immediately waived off as Taylor had gotten a slight piece of the puck while Kozyrev stickhandled, counting as a save. In round eight, Hatten scored again, while Taylor denied Kozyrev again to win the shootout and game for Evansville, 3-2 and 5-4 respectively.
 Zhukov scored one goal and one assist, Abbate, Lynn, Spadafore and Hatten finished with one goal each, with Lynn adding a shootout goal and Hatten with two shootout goals including the winning goal, and Dorsey finished with three assists. In goal, Brendahn Brawley stopped 22 of 26 shots faced before being swapped for Ty Taylor between the second and third periods, with Taylor stopping all 14 shots in the third period and overtime, along with 6 of 8 shootout attempts for his 1st win of the season. The Thunderbolts and Bulls meet again on Friday, April 5th at Ford Center.
