Peoria, Ill.: Despite coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the second half of the game, the Peoria Rivermen would find a way to squeeze back in front and defeat the Thunderbolts 5-3 in Peoria on Friday night. The Thunderbolts next home game will be on Friday, November 4th against the Pensacola Ice Flyers at 7:00pm CT. For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), go to EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or visit the Ford Center Ticket Office.
After a scoreless first period, the Rivermen jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second period as Kasey Kulczycki and Joseph Drapluk scored for Peoria. Matthew Hobbs answered back at 13:58 from Alexis Girard to pull the Thunderbolts back to within a 2-1 deficit, before Peoria’s Tyler Barrow scored minutes later to re-extend the Rivermen lead to 3-1. The Thunderbolts had another response less than a minute later, as Mathieu Cloutier scored at 17:19 from Girard and Mike Ferraro, ending the second period with Evansville only trailing 3-2. Timothy Faulkner tied the game back up only 1:07 into the third period from Ferraro, but the Rivermen took the lead back as Barrow scored at 4:58, with a late empty net goal by Peoria to seal Evansville’s 5-3 loss.
Hobbs, Cloutier and Faulkner scored one goal each, while Ferraro and Girard tallied two assists each. Zane Steeves stopped 29 of 33 shots faced in net. These two teams meet again on October 29th at the Peoria Civic Center.
