Bulls charge into 3 games this week amid travel and injuries

Presented by Bham Now

After a rough weekend at home, the Birmingham Bulls will have to reach down deep and find a way to get back on track.  The Fayetteville Marksmen came into the Pelham Civic Complex and swept the Bulls winning Friday and Saturday night by identical 4-2 scores.  They now have a road game at Fayetteville Wednesday night before returning home for a Friday night game against Pensacola.

The Ice Pilots were taken to the woodshed last weekend in Huntsville.  The Havoc swept Pensacola scoring seven goals in both games and outscoring them 14-4.  The Ice Pilots currently sit in third place and will play Wednesday night at home against Huntsville.  

The Bulls will need to shore up the defense as they gave up 96 shots on goal combined in both games against Fayetteville.  If not for the Bulls goalie tandem of Hayden Stewart and Jacob Mucitelli, things could have been much worse.  They simply kept the Bulls in both games.  Not only will their play need to continue, but the rest of the team must play better and smarter in order to make things different.

For the Bulls things got more difficult as leading scorer Fillimon Ledziankou is likely to be out for a while.  As of this writing, Ledziankou was having an upper body MRI done Monday.  But it is highly probable that he will be out of both games this weekend if not more.  Couple that with Danny Weight and Kyren Gonick on the IR and you find yourselves in a situation nobody wants to be in.  These are the times you find out as a team what you are made of.

“Not going to be easy, we just have to find a way”, Craig Simchuk said.  “Without Fil (Filimon Ledziankou) players are going to have to step up.  For those players who have wanted the chance to play more of an offensive role, power plays, here is their opportunity.  When asked about what he would say to challenge the younger players Simchuk said, “ Can you play a bigger role?  Will you sink or swim?  

With 47 games remaining in the season there is plenty of time to grow and get better every day.  This week will be telling to both Simchuk and Kevin Kerr.  After playing in Fayetteville Wednesday and Pensacola Friday in Pelham, the Bulls will close Thanksgiving week against the Ice Pilots  in Pensacola Friday night.