By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Midway through the 2018-19 SPHL hockey season and the Birmingham Bulls are making some noise in just their second year.

Now through 26 of their 56 games this season, the Bulls sit in second place in the league with 39 points thanks to a record of 19-6-1, which has them just behind first-place Peoria, who currently has 43 points with a record of 20-3-3.

Birmingham’s most recent series came on the road against the Knoxville Ice Bears Friday, Jan. 4, through Saturday, Jan. 5.

The Bulls went on to split the two matchups with the fifth-place team, and recaps from the two one-goal games can be found below.

Birmingham 4, Knoxville 3

Despite going a combined 0-8 on power plays, the first game of the series was a thrilling back-and-forth affair that saw the Bulls escape with a one-goal victory behind a goal from Craig Simchuk with 1:16 left in the game.

The two teams traded goals in the first two periods with Birmingham scoring first in both frames.

Evan Schultz started the scoring off in the opening period with a goal just 2:09 into the contest to put the Bulls on top 1-0.

That goal stood for almost the entirety of the period, until Liam Kerins answered with a remarkable goal with two seconds left on the clock to bring the game to a tie heading to the second period.

While the two teams struggled on the power play, those struggles paid off for Birmingham who was able to get a shorthanded goal from Josh Harris halfway through the second period thanks to a steal and unassisted goal for a 2-1 advantage.

In what was becoming typical fashion, however, Knoxville answered extremely late in the period yet again as Bryce Nielsen found the back of the net to even the score with five seconds to go.

While it took a while to get the scoring going in the final period, the Bulls struck first again with a goal from Shane Topf off assists from Taylor Dickin and Simchuk, which gave them the lead with four minutes left to play.

Knoxville, however, answered 1:16 later off a goal from Danny Cesarz to knot the score at 3-3 for the game’s third tie—and this time it looked like overtime was in the near future.

Simchuk had other plans. Thanks to a great assist from Topf, Simchuk was able to beat Knoxville goalie Hayden Stewart with a beautiful shot to win the game in the final 1:20 of play.

Topf and Simchuk both ended the contest with two points and were key in the victory.

Birmingham 4, Knoxville 5

The second game was no less thrilling as the Bulls found themselves in their first overtime game of the season to at least guarantee themselves one point.

How they got to overtime was thanks to three periods of chaotic play.

Knoxville was able to put the first two goals on the board behind a first-period goal from Kerins and a second-period goal from David Brancin.

That, however, was followed by an onslaught of goals from the Bulls, who put four unanswered into the net, two of which came from the stick of Austin Daae, and the other two of which came from Nick Own and Mike Davis.

The last of those goals by Daae came with 2:57 left to play and gave the Bulls a 4-2 lead with little time, which forced Knoxville to send an extra attacker onto the ice with an empty net.

With 1:37 left to play, Brandon McMartin was able to make that pay off with a goal to bring Knoxville within a goal.

Going down to the wire, it looked like that was going to be the last bit of luck the Ice Bears would see.

However, with eight seconds left, Knoxville was able to do the unthinkable and put a second extra-attacker goal in the back of the net from Scott Cuthrell to force overtime.

Early in the overtime period, the Ice Bears were able to make it three unanswered goals as Kerins put home his second of the game to close out the contest by a final score of 5-4 to give Knoxville a full two points and the Bulls one point.

Both teams were again a combined 0-7 on the power play.

Sam Williams, Daee and Owen all had two points for the Bulls in the difficult loss.

Birmingham will now hit the road for the second consecutive weekend to take on the Macon Mayhem between Friday, Jan. 11, and Saturday, Jan. 12.

The Mayhem sit just below the Bulls in third place with 37 points.