Evansville, In.:  Down by multiple goals on four different occasions, the Thunderbolts persisted and rallied late from 5-3 down to force overtime and defeat the Birmingham Bulls 6-5 on Friday night at Ford Center.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Friday, February 2nd against the Knoxville Ice Bears, puck drop at 7:00pm CT.
The Bulls grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period as Carson Rose scored on a loose puck at 5:09 and again on a cross-ice pass on a power play at 15:10. Just over a minute later at 16:27, Scott Kirton scored his first goal of the night off a deflected shot at 16:27, assisted by Brady Lynn and Vadim Vasjonkin to pull Evansville to within a 2-1 deficit after one period. 50 seconds into the second period, Brendan Soucie scored for Birmingham to make it a 3-1 Bulls lead, before Kirton scored 50 seconds later at 1:40 from Lynn and Vasjonkin to cut the Bulls lead again to one goal, 3-2. 42 seconds after Kirton’s second goal however, Rose completed his hat trick at 2:22 to make it 4-2 Birmingham. Not to be outdone, Kirton picked up his own hat trick by scoring on a rush to the net at 8:29, assisted by Vasjonkin and Benjamin Lindberg to trim Birmingham’s lead to 4-3.
The Thunderbolts ended the second period and started the third period by successfully killing a major and minor Bulls power play, however Rose scored again for the Bulls off a dump-in at 5:01 to give the Bulls a 5-3 lead. With 5:46 remaining in regulation, the Thunderbolts got to within a goal once again as Bruno Kreisz scored off a great passing play from Brendan Harrogate and Dmitri Yushkevich to make it 5-4. With Cole Ceci pulled late, Matthew Hobbs tied the game off a face-off at 18:22, assisted by Kirton and Vasjonkin to force overtime. In extra time, Myles Abbate became the hero for Evansville by scoring unassisted on a wrap-around at 1:13 to win it for the Thunderbolts 6-5.
