By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor - Shelby County Reporter
The Birmingham Bulls are rolling into the final week of the SPHL regular season in red hot form after extending their win streak to six games in a row. The Bulls beat the Huntsville Havoc 7-5 on Thursday, March 27 at the Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center before coming back to the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena to beat the Fayetteville Marksmen 2-1 in a shootout on Friday, March 28 and 4-1 on Saturday, March 29.
With the wins, Birmingham leapfrogged Fayetteville into fourth place with 65 points, putting it in pole position to secure home ice advantage in a first-round series between the two teams. In the process, a franchise legend reached a big milestone. With a goal in Saturday’s win, Carson Rose surpassed Mike Davis for the most points of any player in the Bulls’ SPHL era with 179 points. On Thursday against the Havoc, Andrew Bellant kicked off the scoring to put Birmingham up 1-0 with 14:08 remaining in the first thanks to assists from Arkhip and Filimon Ledziankou.
Huntsville equalized off a power play goal with 8:22 remaining in the period as Dylan Stewart found the back of the net. That penalty came after a Jared Christy spearing major that gave him a game misconduct and sparked a massive brawl, which ended with each team losing two players to game misconduct fouls.
A penalty for too many men on the ice late in the period proved costly for the Havoc as Bellant scored his second goal of the period off the power play to make the lead 2-1 with 1:30 left until intermission. Sam Ruffin equalized five minutes into the second period, but Bellant linked up with the Ledziankous again to secure his hat trick and retake the 3-2 lead with 7:39 left in the second.
Huntsville equalized off a power play goal with 8:22 remaining in the period as Dylan Stewart found the back of the net. That penalty came after a Jared Christy spearing major that gave him a game misconduct and sparked a massive brawl, which ended with each team losing two players to game misconduct fouls.
A penalty for too many men on the ice late in the period proved costly for the Havoc as Bellant scored his second goal of the period off the power play to make the lead 2-1 with 1:30 left until intermission. Sam Ruffin equalized five minutes into the second period, but Bellant linked up with the Ledziankous again to secure his hat trick and retake the 3-2 lead with 7:39 left in the second.
The back-and-forth continued when the Havoc knotted the score at 3-3 off a Craig McCabe goal with 7:03 remaining in the period. However, Birmingham finished the period strong with back-to-back goals. After Nikita Kozyrev scored with 3:58 remaining in the second, Bellant scored his fourth goal of the game just 49 seconds later to increase the lead to 5-3.
That score line held through the second intermission, but the Bulls carried the momentum into the third as Arkhip Ledziankou scored off an assist from his twin brother Filimon to make it a 6-3 lead with 16:03 left. The Havoc then scored two goals over the course of four-and-a-half minutes to cut the deficit to one with just 10:44 remaining, putting the pressure on Birmingham. That pressure only increased as the Bulls committed two penalties in the final five minutes, the latter of which gave Huntsville permission to pull its goaltender for a 6-on-4 power play.
The Bulls had other plans though as Olynek scored the short-handed, empty-net goal to seal the 7-5 win. Birmingham then returned home for its final homestand of the regular season against the Fayetteville Marksmen, and the first game on Friday started out in a deadlock with the first period ending in a scoreless tie. Just before the midway mark of the game, Arkhip Ledziankou took passes from Filimon Ledziankou and Jared Christy to score his 16th goal of the season and give the Bulls a 1-0 lead with 10:37 remaining in the second.
That goal was part of a big second period for Birmingham when it outshot Fayetteville 16-4 on the back of two power play chances. However, the Marksmen equalized in the third period as Dalton Hunter scored with 12:36 remaining to tie the game at 1-1. The Bulls couldn’t score the winning goal in a power play during the final two minutes, and the game went first to overtime and then to a shootout. Neither team could score in the first two rounds of the shootout, but the third round brought some separation.
After Chance Gorman of Fayetteville missed his attempt, Kozyrev slotted his home to put his team up 1-0. The Marksmen then missed their final two shots to give Birmingham the 2-1 win in the game after a 1-0 shootout victory. Kozyrev’s goal gave him the First Star while Hayden Stewart’s 18 saves on 19 shots were enough for the Second Star and Arkhip Ledizankou’s opening goal earned him the Third Star.
The next night in the final home game of the regular season, an early tripping penalty from Arkhip Ledziankou proved costly as it opened the door for Fayetteville to score the opening goal. Alex Wilkins did just that, scoring 1:28 into the man-advantage to put the visitors up 1-0 with 8:07 remaining in the first. While that lead carried over into the second period, it did not last long as the Bulls scored four unanswered goals, including three in the second period.
Arkhip Ledziankou knotted up the game off passes from Filimon Ledziankou and Ryan Romeo, leaving the teams tied at 1-1 with 15:47 remaining in the second. From there, Troy MacTavish gave the hosts the lead with 9:30 left in the period thanks to assists from Kyler Matthews and MacGregor Sinclair.
Rose wrapped up the scoring with his 25th goal of the season and historic 179th point of his Birmingham career off assists from Connor Scahill and Brierley to take the 3-1 lead. After taking that lead into the third period, Filimon Ledziankou finished off the 4-1 win with a goal thanks to passes from Brierley and Arkhip Ledziankou with just 11:13 left.
The Bulls will finish their regular season on the road at the Evansville Thunderbolts on April 4 and 5. From there, they will go on to the SPHL Presidents Cup Playoffs, with the matchup and times to be determined after April 5’s games.