Bulls look to get back in the win column with 3 game this weekend

Presented by Bham Now

Short-handed can mean a lot of different things.  But for Craig Simchuk and the Birmingham Bulls, it means going into a three game in three nights weekend with only eight forwards.  That means the Bulls don’t have enough forwards to even make up three offensive lines.  That means it will be a hard working task for Simchuk to remedy by finding replacements.

Birmingham starts the weekend on the road in Roanoke for a Thursday night match against the Rail Yard Dogs.  They then will get on a bus and travel all the way back from Roanoke, an eight hour drive, and take on the first place Peoria Rivermen for a pair of games Friday and Saturday night.  To make matters even more worse, Peoria will be restinh in their hotel rooms in Pelham Thursday night without a game.  

Coming off a pair of losses to in-state rival Huntsville, the Bulls would love to start another winning streak like they had prior to the losses to the Havoc.  Birmingham was on a five game winning streak before Huntsville stopped it and now looms the most physical team in the league in Peoria coming to the Pelham Civic Complex.

The Bulls lost Kolton Olynek and Parker Saretsky to injury and found out SPHL leading rookie scorer Shawn Kennedy has been called up by Utah in the ECHL.  Lazarus Kaebel (Worcester) and Aaron Chiarot (South Carolina) are still in the ECHL and will not return for the three games.  And recently acquired forward Timmy Kent has signed to play in Europe in the German League.  

In a bit of good news, goaltender Jacob Mucitelli has returned from Wheeling in the ECHL and will be available to play during these three games.  Danny Weight has been on the IR since November 19 but may be available to return next week.