Peoria, Ill.:  Combining for 120 penalty minutes, the Thunderbolts and Rivermen duked it out in a back-and-forth game that the Rivermen eventually won by a 4-1 score on Friday night at Peoria Civic Center. The Thunderbolts next home game will be on Saturday, November 11th against the Huntsville Havoc, puck drop at 7:00pm CT.
Evansville grabbed the game’s first lead only 3:42 into the game, as Grayson Valente scored from Tommy Stang. On the power play however, the Thunderbolts fell victim to a shorthanded Rivermen goal from JM Piotrowski, tying the game at 1-1 at the 11:45 mark. The second period’s only goals came 43 seconds apart midway through, as Joseph Widmar and Zach Wilkie scored to put the Rivermen ahead 3-1. In the third period, Piotrowski added another goal 1:13 in to round out the scoring at 4-1.  Although the scoring was done, the fisticuffs had just begun, as major scrums became commonplace at many stoppages the rest of the way, particularly with 3:37 remaining with Chays Ruddy taking on Renat Dadazhonov in a fight, and with 3:06 remaining as Mark Zhukov and Jordan Spadafore squared off with Zach Wilkie and Alec Hagaman, respectively. Despite the loss, Evansville’s game saw improvement both in offensive opportunities and overall defense and discipline since their last meeting, only going shorthanded 5 times and killing each Rivermen power play chance.
Valente scored the lone Evansville goal, while Sean Kuhn finished with 28 saves on 32 shots. The Thunderbolts and Rivermen meet once again on Tuesday, November 14th at Ford Center.
