Peoria, Il.: Even though the Thunderbolts were heavily outshot in their 4th road game in a week, Evansville kept it close in large part to the strong goaltending of Ty Taylor, who kept Evansville only down 3-1 at the final buzzer in Peoria on Friday night. The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Saturday, February 24th against the Peoria Rivermen, puck drop at 7:00pm CT.
The Rivermen grabbed the first lead of the night as Alec Hagaman scored 7:30 into the contest. Peoria extended the lead to 2-0 early in the second period as Jordan Ernst added another goal at 2:40. Peoria pressed hard in the first half of the second period following the goal, but could not extend the lead as Taylor made several significant saves to keep it at 2-0, before the Thunderbolts finally got a rush up ice and scored at 10:31 to make it a 2-1 game, with Bruno Kreisz scoring from Vadim Vasjonkin and Brendan Harrogate. Peoria added another goal early in the third period, as Ryan Nolan scored at 1:56. Towards the end of the game, the Thunderbolts did get some weekend momentum back going into tomorrow’s rematch as Taylor denied Mitch McPherson on a penalty shot attempt with 17 seconds remaining in the game to keep it at 3-1.
Kreisz scored Evansville’s lone goal, while Taylor made 32 saves on 35 shots faced. The Thunderbolts and Rivermen meet again on Saturday, February 24th at Ford Center.
Individual game tickets and group packages are on sale for this 2023-24 season. Season tickets for the 2024-25 season are on sale now. Call 812-422-BOLT or visit our all-new website (www.evansvillethunderbolts.com) for details.
About Evansville Thunderbolts: The Evansville Thunderbolts is the area’s only professional hockey team. The Thunderbolts are a proud member of the SPHL. The team is owned and operated by VW Sports, L.L.C, a subsidiary of VenuWorks, Inc. www.evansvillethunderbolts.com