The goal completed the Gordie Howe hat trick for Jordan and, more importantly, tied the game up and sent it into overtime. Who other than Jordan would come through to tie things up in a crazy scramble in front of the net with 38 seconds remaining in the 3rd. Still, even being behind by one goal, the Bulls maintained their discipline and played hard through the third.
Austin Plevy of the Thunderbolts was the one that found a way to put the Bolts up at the 6:02 mark in the third. The third period came around, and both teams were buzzing, looking for a way to get that all-important go-ahead goal. There was no need to panic in the locker room as the Bulls were still well in the game, and they were only called for one penalty in the second. Evansville came out looking like the team from opening weekend and tied the game up at two goals apiece. The second period was a whole different story, though, in the game. The most significant improvement was the lack of penalties without the fight between Jordan and Zane Jones, Birmingham only had two penalties which were matched by the two penalties from Evansville. The Bulls went into the locker room feeling good and up 2-0. The night started out with Jordan picking up where he left off the night before and feeding Houston Wilson a great pass to put the Bulls up early in the first period. Saturday night, despite the loss, was a much better game by the Bulls despite losing a heartbreaker in overtime. That would be undisciplined play resulting in 41 penalty minutes on the night. However, Friday night's loss has a straightforward explanation as to why it happened. Jordan looks like he didn't miss a beat sitting out last season, and Lotz was standing on his head all night in the net, stopping 39 out of 42 shots. There was some good to come out of Friday night's overtime loss. It took 2:16 seconds for Andrew Bellant to beat Austin Lotz and score the Ice Bears third powerplay goal of the night and the game-winner.
Since the penalty was a major penalty, the Ice Bears would stay on the powerplay heading into overtime. Nippard was given a game misconduct, and the sentence was a five-minute major. That goal came as the Ice Bears were playing 6-on-4 hockey because of a very costly penalty by David Nippard for spearing with 2:37 remaining in the game.
He scored both goals for the Bulls against the Ice Bears and had the go-ahead goal until the Ice Bears Andrew McLean tied things up with only six seconds remaining in the third period. However, the Bulls did have some bright spots during the home opener, and one of those is that Russel Jordan is back and is playing excellent hockey for the team. The first period featured five penalties which converted to 13 minutes in the box. The Birmingham Bulls penalty bug continued to haunt them throughout Friday night at the home opener against the Knoxville Ice Bears. The Bulls fell in their home opener to the Ice Bears in overtime on Friday night 3-2 and then went into Evansville on Saturday night to face the Thunderbolts 4-3 in overtime. PELHAM, Ala- The Birmingham Bulls managed to escape the weekend with two points but still have yet to get into the win column in this early season.
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OctoSouthern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) - Birmingham Bulls News Release
Birmingham Escapes Weekend with Two Points