Pelham, Ala.: Against a mostly new group of Birmingham Bulls, the Thunderbolts battled their way to a 3-2 shootout victory on Friday night at the Pelham Civic Complex to begin the 2025-26 season. The Thunderbolts’ home opener and President’s Cup Championship celebration game at Ford Center will be on Saturday, October 25th against the Quad City at 7:00pm CT.
In the first period, the Thunderbolts controlled the bulk of 5-on-5 hockey, however it was the Bulls who grabbed the period’s lone goal, a power play tally from Shane Murphy at 16:58 to give Birmingham the first lead of the night. Evansville broke through on Hayden Stewart at 17:34 of the second period, as Aidan Litke roofed a wrist-shot through traffic to tie the game, assisted by Cameron Patton and Derek Contessa. Following a successful penalty kill to begin the third period, the Thunderbolts took a 2-1 lead at 4:05 as Jordan Simoneau outmuscled the Bulls in their goal crease, assisted by Connor Federkow and Matthew Hobbs to make it 2-1 Evansville. The Bulls finished regulation strong and tied the game with 3:21 remaining off a goal from Connor Scahill, forcing overtime. The Bulls had numerous chances in overtime, but a combination of fortunate bounces and great saves from Kristian Stead in his Thunderbolts debut stole the show, as the game went to a shootout. Filimon Ledziankou gave the Bulls the lead in the shootout’s first round, before Evansville came back with goals from Scott Kirton and Myles Abbate in the fourth and fifth rounds, along with four consecutive stops from Stead to deliver Evansville the 3-2 victory.
Litke and Simoneau scored one goal each in regulation, while Kirton and Abbate scored one goal each in the shootout. In goal, Kristian Stead finished with 36 saves on 38 shots on goal along with 4 saves on 5 shootout attempts to secure his first win as an Evansville Thunderbolt in his debut. The Thunderbolts and Bulls meet again on Saturday, December 6th at Ford Center, with Evansville leading the season series 1-0.
