Huntsville, Ala.: For the second game in a row, the Thunderbolts came from behind to secure victory, this time by coming back from 3-1 down in the second period to defeat the Havoc 7-4 on Friday night in Huntsville. The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Wednesday, December 28th against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT. For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), go to EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or visit the Ford Center Ticket Office.
Evansville trailed early, as Austin Martinsen put the Havoc up 1-0 at 4:04, before Cameron Cook scored at 10:21 from Aaron Huffnagle and Kyle Thacker to tie the game. Late in the first period however, the Havoc struck to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission, as Robbie Fisher scored with 12.8 seconds remaining. Fisher scored again only 45 seconds into the second period to give Huntsville a 3-1 lead, but not long after, the Thunderbolts exploded offensively. At 8:06, Mike Ferraro scored from Scott Kirton and Dillon Hill to pull Evansville to within one goal, and with 1:02 left in the period it was Joseph Leonidas scoring in his first game as a Thunderbolt from Ferraro and Cook to tie the game going into the second intermission.
After a long stretch of scoreless hockey in the third period’s first half, Ferraro scored once again, on the power play at 9:34 from Cook and Brendan Harrogate to give Evansville their first lead of the night. Only 1:45 later, Andrew Shewfelt followed up with a goal from Cook to give Evansville a 5-3 lead at 11:19. With the Havoc net empty late, James Isaacs scored from the Evansville zone to make it 6-3 at 16:25, Evansville’s 5th unanswered goal. Huntsville got one back late as Rob Darrar scored a power play goal at 17:54 to make it 6-4, but Mathieu Cloutier added one more empty net goal from Kyle Thacker at 18:27 to wrap up the scoring in Evansville’s 7-4 victory, as the Thunderbolts get back to within 2 points of 1st place in the SPHL standings.
Ferraro led the way with two goals and an assist, Cook scored a goal and three assists, while Shewfelt, Leonidas, Isaacs and Cloutier scored one goal each. Thacker tallied two assists, and Zane Steeves stopped 29 of 33 shots faced in net for his 9th win of the season. These two teams meet again on January 11th at Ford Center.
