Bulls continue strong start with wins over Evansville, Pensacola – Shelby County Reporter

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports editor

The Birmingham Bulls are making waves to start the season as they defend their regular season title from the 2023-24 campaign.

After going 1-1 in the opening weekend of the season, the Bulls defeated the Evansville Thunderbolts 4-1 on Friday, Oct. 25 at the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena and defeated the Pensacola Ice Flyers 5-2 on Saturday, Oct. 26 at Pensacola Bay Center.

Birmingham opened the weekend with a home win against Evansville, marking the first time the two sides have met since the Thunderbolts shocked the Bulls in the first round of the Presidents Cup Playoffs last season.

Carson Rose wasted little time ending his old nightmares, scoring his fourth goal of the season off an assist from Drake Glover just 1:33 into the game.

Less than a minute later, however, Evansville’s Matthew Barnaby tied the score at 1-1, and that score held through the first intermission even after a power play chance midway through the period by Birmingham.

After the Bulls blew off a high-scoring first half, Michael Gillespie scored with 9:45 left in the second period to put the Bulls back on top 2-1.

That proved to be the decisive blow as Birmingham stayed on top, although the game descended into chaos with 11 penalties following a Gillespie goal.

Just as the Thunderbolts’ Matthew Hobbs came out of the box after starting a fight early in the third period, Nikta Kozyrev opened his scoring tally of the season, making it 3-1 with 15:48 left in the game.

The same man who opened the scoring then closed it out when Rose scored his second goal of the game with 6:31 remaining to seal the 4-1 victory.

He was named the First Star of the match for his two-goal night, while Arkhip Ledzianku earned the Second Star for providing two assists and defender Kyler Matthews was the Third Star.

The Bulls carried the momentum of their second straight win into their trip south to face Pensacola for a Saturday night doubleheader.

The teams got flustered right out of the gate when the Ice Flyers’ Tyler Adams started a fight with Jamie Dorsey just 1:30 into the game. Birmingham couldn’t capitalize on the ensuing power play or its next man advantage when Pensacola’s C.J. Hayes was called for a rushing score at 4:28.

Those two chances almost proved costly when Cameron Cook put the Ice Flyers up 1-0 with 9:25 left in the opening period.

Just under two minutes later, however, Kyler Matthews equalized with his first goal of the season, sending the teams into the locker rooms for the first intermission tied 1-1.

This set up a barrage of goals in the second half.

Rose started the scoring with two goals, first an unassisted goal with 16:01 left in the period and then one off an assist from Kozyrev with 11:20 left in the second.

McGregor Sinclair then scored his first goal of the season off an assist from Ledzianku to make it 4-1 with 3:03 left in the second period.

After a scuffle between Hayes and the Bulls’ Matt Clark early in the third period resulted in a foul on Hayes, Matt Weisner put one back for Pensacola to make it 4-2 with 14:11 left in the game.

The Ice Flyers couldn’t get any closer than that, however, and an empty-netter by Kolten Olinek with 1:11 remaining sealed the 5-2 victory.

Rose earned the First Star once again with two goals and an assist, Matthews earned the Second Star thanks to his goal and goaltender Hayden Stewart was the Third Star, earning 31 saves against just two goals allowed.

The Birmingham Bulls will return home on November 1st and 2nd for a two-game homestand against the Macon Mayhem. Both games will begin at 7pm at the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena.