Evansville, In.: After rallying twice from a goal down in the second period to tie Quad City going into the third, the Thunderbolts ran out of offensive juice as the Storm scored three goals down the stretch to defeat Evansville 6-3 on Friday night at Ford Center. The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Saturday, March 2nd against the Quad City Storm, puck drop at 7:00pm CT.
Mark Zhukov began the scoring for Evansville, scoring only 3:25 into the game from Myles Abbate to give Evansville the first lead of the night. However, Matt Ustaski tied the game for Quad City at 6:00, before Patriks Marcinkevics put the Storm ahead by scoring at 18:51. 3:52 into the second period, Abbate tied the game off a feed from Matthew Hobbs, before Cole Golka answered back for the Storm at 8:16 to make it 3-2 Quad City. The Thunderbolts rallied again at 11:00, as Nick Prestia scored from Hobbs off a face-off to tie the game back up at 3-3. In the third period, Ustaski scored two more goals to pick up the hat trick, his goals coming at 5:00 and 9:40 to give the Storm a 5-3 lead, before Golka put the game out of reach with an empty net goal at 18:46 to make it 6-3 Quad City.
Abbate finished with a goal and assist, Prestia and Zhukov scored one goal each, and Hobbs tallied a pair of assists. In goal, Ty Taylor made 24 saves on 29 shots. The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again for the final time this regular season on Saturday, March 2nd 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