Thunderbolts Unable to Rally in Third Period; Fall 3-1 to Quad City

Evansville, In.:  After a strong first two periods of play, the Thunderbolts simply ran out of gas in their 6th game in 10 days, losing 3-1 at Quad City on Sunday afternoon.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Wednesday, January 14th against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.

Following a scoreless first period in which Evansville outshot the Storm 10-6, the Thunderbolts continued to push in the second period until they were finally rewarded at 11:32, as Derek Contessa deflected a shot into the net from Max Thiessen and Evan Miller to give Evansville the 1-0 lead.  Terrible luck struck with 1:30 remaining, as a shot blocked away by Kristian Stead spun up in the air and dropped in the crease, and a Thunderbolts defenseman accidentally banked the puck in off Stead as he was trying to cover up for a face-off, leading to the Storm tying the game 1-1.  Evansville stumbled in the third, and Jake McDonald scored on a 2-on-1 rush for the Storm at 2:14 to give Quad City the lead, with Jesper Tarkiainen adding a late empty net goal to defeat Evansville 3-1.

Contessa scored Evansville’s goal, while Kristian Stead finished with 24 saves on 26 shots on goal.  The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Saturday, January 24th at Ford Center, with the regular season series tied 5-5.

Season tickets, Individual game tickets and group packages are on sale for the 2025-26 season.  Call 812-422-BOLT(2658) or visit our 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

Karpinski, Thunderbolts Shutout Quad City 4-0

Evansville, In.:  The Thunderbolts got the bounce back performance they were searching for after Friday’s loss, a 4-0 shutout victory over the Quad City Storm on Saturday night at Ford Center.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Wednesday, January 14th against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.

The first period was relatively uneventful, as Myles Abbate nearly scored on the rush midway through the period, but hit the post.  The offense roared to life in the second period as Joey Berkopec scored on the rush from Scott Kirton and Connor Tait only 31 seconds in to give Evansville a 1-0 lead.  At 7:11, excellent forecheck pressure led to Tyson Gilmour finding Kirton at the net front to make it 2-0, also assisted by Berkopec.  After holding at 2-0for a long stretch going midway into the third period, Abbate scored on nearly the same play that hit the post earlier, shooting off a beautiful 2-on-1 setup from Isaac Chapman to make it 3-0, with Evan Miller getting the secondary assist by starting the rush out of the Evansville zone.  With only 3:10 remaining, Evansville capitalized on a power play to make it 4-0 as Jordan Simoneau scored on a net-front redirection from Abbate and Kirton.

Kirton led the way offensively with a goal and 2 assists, Abbate and Berkopec registered a goal and assist each, and Simoneau scored one goal.  In goal, Cody Karpinski stopped all 25 shots on goal for his 1st win of the season and his first as a Thunderbolt, also recording his 4th professional shutout and becoming the first Thunderbolts goaltender to pick up a shutout victory in the regular season since Cole Ceci on January 5th, 2024, against Quad City.  The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Sunday, January 4th at Vibrant Arena, with Evansville leading the regular season series 5-4.

Season tickets, Individual game tickets and group packages are on sale for the 2025-26 season.  Call 812-422-BOLT(2658) or visit our 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

Thunderbolts Fall 4-1 to Storm in Weekend Opener

Evansville, In.:  Despite a second period rally to tie the game, the Thunderbolts suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Quad City Storm at Ford Center on Friday night.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Saturday, January 3rd against the Quad City Storm at 7:00pm CT.

In a very close first period in which Evansville only trailed in shots by a 14-10 margin, the Storm scored the game’s first goal on a power play as Nick McHugh scored on a net-front redirection at 9:56.  Evansville played their best hockey in the second period, outshooting the Storm 15-14 and tying the game at the 11:04 mark as Tyson Gilmour scored from Matthew Hobbs and Scott Kirton.  Evansville fell behind at the start of the third period and could not recover, as Jesper Tarkiainen scored at 1:15, Devin Sanders at 6:32, and Sanders again with a shorthanded goal at 13:38 to put the game away, 4-1 Quad City.  

Gilmour scored Evansville’s goal while Cody Karpinski stopped 35 of 39 shots on goal in his Thunderbolts debut.  The Thunderbolts and Storm meet again on Saturday, January 3rd at Ford Center, with the season series tied 4-4.

Season tickets, Individual game tickets and group packages are on sale for the 2025-26 season.  Call 812-422-BOLT(2658) or visit our 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

Thunderbolts Host Near 6,000 for New Year's Eve Game

Evansville, In.:  Despite the tough 6-1 defeat to the Birmingham Bulls, it was an off-ice victory as the Thunderbolts welcomed 5,923 fans to Wednesday night’s game and postgame fireworks show at Ford Center.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game at Ford Center will be on Friday, January 2nd against the Quad City Storm at 7:00pm CT.

The Thunderbolts encountered some of the worst luck possible in the span of a single game, starting in the first period as the Thunderbolts heavily outshot the Bulls 21-5 and had the vast majority of scoring chances, yet the Bulls took a 2-0 lead off a Drake Glover power play goal at 8:10 and a CJ Walker goal at 11:20 on literally the only two chances the Bulls had in the period, as it became clear that Hayden Stewart was going to be a hard problem to solve in goal for Birmingham.  In the second period, Evansville outshot the Bulls 10-9 yet Birmingham once again scored twice as Walker scored on a 5-on-3 at the 1:24 mark and Macgregor Sinclair made it 4-0 at 7:59.  The Thunderbolts got life at 7:37 of the third period as Connor Tait scored off a face-off to break the Bulls’ shutout, assisted by Eelis Laaksonen.  Unfortunately, the Bulls put the game away later as Sinclair scored again at 14:12 and Matt Wood added a power play goal with 2:13 remaining to make it a 6-1 game.

Tait scored Evansville’s goal while Kristian Stead stopped 19 of 25 shots on goal, which should be heavily emphasized that virtually all of the goals against Stead were on very difficult Grade-A opportunities.  The Thunderbolts and Bulls meet again on Friday, January 23rd at Ford Center, with Evansville leading the season series 2-1.

Season tickets, Individual game tickets and group packages are on sale for the 2025-26 season.  Call 812-422-BOLT(2658) or visit our 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

Thunderbolts Sign Defenseman Quartarolo; Activate Thiessen

Prior to Wednesday night's game against Birmingham, Head Coach/Director of Hockey Operations Jeff Bes announced a trio of transactions, led by the signing of defenseman Dash Quartarolo to a standard contract.  

In 2024-25, Quartarolo played 20 games with JHT of the Finnish Suomi-Sarja league, scoring 2 goals and 8 points, before finishing the season appearing in two games for the Kyiv Capitals of the Ukraine League.  Quartarolo played parts of four seasons of college hockey at Becker College, New England College, and Salem State University, where he skated in 20 games and scored one goal.  The native of Sydney, Australia also played two seasons of summer hockey in his homeland in the Australian Ice Hockey League with the Newcastle Northstars in 2022 and Central Coast Rhinos in 2023, scoring 3 goals and 8 points in 23 combined games.

In additional transaction news, defenseman Max Thiessen has been activated from injured reserve and defenseman Dilan Peters has been placed on team suspension.