Evansville, In.: Coming back twice to tie, the Thunderbolts battled the Birmingham Bulls to overtime and eventually a shootout, earning another standings point in the process, but fell just short 4-3 to Birmingham on Wednesday night at Ford Center. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Friday, January 23rd against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.
Despite outshooting Birmingham 11-7 in the first period, the Bulls scored the game’s first goal at 11:14, with Philippe Caron scoring through traffic. Evansville played their strongest hockey in the second period, outshooting the Bulls 13-4. At 5:44, Evan Miller scored off a quick wrist shot from Dmitry Yushkevich to tie the game 1-1. On a power play a few minutes later at 8:39, Derek Contessa scored on a rebound from Joey Berkopec and Miller to give Evansville their first lead of the game, cancelled out at 13:57 as Colin Tracy tied the game once again for Birmingham. In the third period, Matt Myers scored on a rush to the net to once again give the Bulls the lead, 3-2 at 10:04. With 5:56 remaining, however, Miller scored his second goal of the night to tie the game 3-3, assisted by Tyson Gilmour and Berkopec. Miller nearly rounded out the hat trick in overtime but could not convert on a breakaway, and the game went to a shootout. The Bulls struck twice in the shootout while Evansville was denied on four opportunities, and the Bulls gained the second point, 4-3 the final score.
Miller scored two goals and added an assist, Contessa scored one goal, and Berkopec finished with a pair of assists. In goal, Kristian Stead stopped 17 of 20 shots on goal and 2 of 4 in the shootout. The Thunderbolts and Bulls meet again on Friday, January 23rd at Ford Center, with the regular season series tied 2-2.
