Bulls are climbing up the standings ladder with 11 games remaining in the season

Presented by Bham Now

Have the Bulls turned the corner?  With only eleven games left in the season and climbing up the standings ladder, it sure feels that way.  Over the last month, Birmingham was the hottest team in the league, winning seven of ten in February. “Things are finally coming together,” Head Coach Craig Simchuk said.  “The pieces are falling into place with players coming back from the ECHL, some healthy bodies back, and it’s not a secret that our goaltending has been stellar as of late.”

A week before Christmas, the Birmingham Bulls were in bad shape.  With only four wins since the start of the season, on October 17, the Bulls were in last place in the SPHL.  Only one of those four were in regulation.  It was a tough time to go through without a clear path out of what appeared to be a total rebuilding year with no hope for the playoffs.  But hard work has a way of paying off.

Head Coach Craig Simchuk and the Bulls kept plugging away.  Just two weeks later, on January 1, Birmingham had more than doubled their win total and found themselves in 8th place.  By the first week of February, they had 15 wins and had climbed their way to 7th place and were quickly ascending.  

Now that March is here, Birmingham has pounded their way to 6th place and are now well within reach of not only home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but could easily find their way to 2nd place in the league by season's end, five weeks from now.  The Bulls were 7-2-0-1 during the month of February as they head into yet another three games in three night weekend.

“Losing some key players from last year had an early impact.  We added young players, and they needed time,” added Simchuk.  He went on to say, “We had our challenges early on with some ups and downs.  But we stuck together and battled every single day, and now it’s starting to pay off.  But we’re far from done.”  Birmingham started the season with eleven rookies on the roster.

Thursday, Knoxville comes back to Pelham after the Bulls' 5-2 win back on February 21, behind a goal and two assists from Matt Wood and a pair of goals from Shawn Kennedy.  Hayden Stewart stopped 28 of 40 shots to get the win.  Kennedy has dominated the Ice Bears this season with nine points in five games, but was called up to Cincinnati in the ECHL.  The previous night, the Bulls beat Knoxville 5-1 behind Stewart’s performance, stopping 24 of 25 shots.  

Birmingham comes into the weekend winners of eight of the last eleven games.  Knoxville has struggled as of late, winning once in their last five.  The Bulls have a 3-2 lead in the season series after winning the last two games.  The regular season will end with Birmingham in Knoxville for a pair of games on April 3rd and 4th.

Birmingham has their destiny in their own hands.  Games with the teams directly above them are coming up in Huntsville (3rd place), Roanoke (4th place), and Pensacola (5th place).  There are also games with Knoxville (7th), and Macon (9th place).  Only five points separate second-place Evansville from Birmingham in sixth place.