Birmingham has the opportunity to put even more distance between them and Fayetteville this weekend.

Presented by Bham Now

After two weeks on the road, the Birmingham Bulls come home a different hockey team than the one we saw last.  Birmingham has won three of the last four games, including the last two, and picked up points in the last four games.  The Bulls now find themselves alone in 6th place in the standings with games on Friday and Saturday night at the Pelham Civic Complex against the Fayetteville Marksmen.

Birmingham has the opportunity to put even more distance between them and Fayetteville.  Coming into the games the Marksmen are just one point back of the Bulls.  Birmingham has the opportunity to go five points ahead of the 7th place Marksmen.  While Birmingham is on a bit of a win streak, Fayetteville has dropped four of their last five games.

The Marksmen are having trouble scoring goals.  In nine games this season they have only managed to score 12 goals.  That ties them for last in the league along with Macon.  The Marksmen are coming off a pair of games against Pensacola where they were shutout once and only scored once in two games vs. the Ice Flyers.  Fayetteville has not scored more than two goals in a game the entire month of November.  

There is a big difference in the Bulls now compared to the first four games of the season. 

“The biggest difference now is we are producing five on five”, Head Coach Craig Simchuk said.  “That along with our special teams, especially the penalty kill has made a huge difference from the start of the season.  We had so many players in their first pro games that now have some confidence, familiarity with one another, and experience playing in other buildings against different style opponents”.  Simchuk went on to say, “We’ve made no changes systematically, our execution is coming together now”.

When asked about the seemingly different directions both teams are heading, Simchuk doesn’t even think about that.  “We worry about our business, our preparation.  All we can do is take care of ourselves.”  He went on to say, “we still are watching film on them and developing our game plan, but we are only focusing on what we do”.

Birmingham put LW Danny Weight and RW Kyren Gronick on the 14-day IR Wednesday.  Both will be eligible to return December 4 vs Pensacola.  The Bulls signed C Damon Zimmer (6-2, 190) and D Aaron Chiarot (6-4, 220) to contracts.  Zimmer started the season with Peoria while Chiarot played with Rapid City in the ECHL.  Chiarot’s older brother Ben currently plays for the Detroit Red Wings and has a 13-year NHL career with the Detroit, Winnipeg, Florida, and Montreal.

Fayetteville will be the Bulls opponent the next three games.  The first two are at the Pelham Civic Complex while Birmingham will be on the road against the Marksmen Wednesday, November 26.