Macon, Ga.: The Thunderbolts were unable to break their win streak record as it was ended at seven games, but the point streak continues as Evansville came back from a 3-0 deficit to pick up a point in their 4-3 shootout loss at Macon on Wednesday. The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Friday, December 5th against the Macon Mayhem at 7:00pm CT.
Macon picked up the first lead of the game only 3:18 in with a goal by John Kaljian. Evansville nearly tied the game late in the period, but a shot by Myles Abbate hit the crossbar. The Mayhem struck twice early in the second period to take a 3-0 lead as Connor May scored at 2:29 and Matteo Ybarra scored at 5:26. Midway through the period, Macon got into penalty trouble and Evansville went to work on a 5-on-3 advantage. On the 5-on-3, Evansville again hit a crossbar, but shortly afterward as it became 5-on-4, Matthew Hobbs scored on a net-front redirection at 12:06 from Tyson Gilmour and Joey Berkopec to shorten the Macon lead to 3-1. At 18:18, Evansville cut the lead to 3-2 as Keanan Stewart scored on a rebound from Gilmour and Connor Federkow to make it a one-goal game going into the third period. Still down 3-2 late, Evansville pulled goaltender Kristian Stead and scored to tie the game with only 1:03 remaining as Myles Abbate scored from Aidan Litke and Stewart to force overtime, which ended scoreless and brought about a shootout. In the 10-round shootout, Myles Abbate scored for Evansville, but the Mayhem scored twice, with Nathan Carl scoring the winning goal in the 10th round. Despite the win streak coming to an end, Evansville has earned at least a point in eight consecutive games (7-0-1), which is tied for the franchise record. Evansville has earned points in eight consecutive games twice before in their history, between January 5th and 23rd of 2018 (6-0-2) and between February 21st, 2020, and October 16th, 2021 (6-0-2), and will have the opportunity to set a new franchise record in Peoria on Friday night.
Stewart picked up a goal and assist, Abbate and Hobbs scored one goal each, and Gilmour tallied a pair of assists. In goal, Kristian Stead finished with 23 saves on 26 shots, plus 8 of 10 in the shootout, in only his 2nd loss of the season. The Thunderbolts and Mayhem meet again on Friday, December 5th at Ford Center, with Macon leading the season series 1-0.
