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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – The Birmingham Bulls had an opportunity to close the gap between them and the fourth-place Fayetteville Marksmen, but the teams split the points from the two-game series.

Birmingham won the first meeting 5-2 on Friday, Feb. 21 at the Crown Coliseum but fell to Fayetteville 3-2 on Saturday, Feb. 22.

As a result, the Bulls sit in sixth place with 44 points, two back of the Marksmen. Birmingham does have games in hand on both of the teams below them in the top eight, Knoxville and Quad City, as coach Craig Simchuk’s team looks to hang on to one of the eight playoff spots.

The Bulls entered the Fayetteville road trip off a positive Presidents Day weekend. The weekend started with a pair of overtime games against the Pensacola Ice Flyers, the first of which was a 3-2 win on Valentine’s Day but the latter was a 3-2 loss on Saturday, Feb. 15.

However, Birmingham ended the weekend with one of its most emphatic results of the season, a 7-2 thrashing of the league-leading Huntsville Havoc in a Presidents Day matinee at the Pelham Civic Complex.

The Bulls carried that momentum into another strong offensive showing on Friday, Feb. 21 against the Marksmen.

While Birmingham outshot Fayetteville 16-8 in the first period, a delay of game call against MacGregor Sinclair just 1:18 into the game proved costly. The Marksmen’s Trent Grimshaw put the hosts on the board with a power play goal with 17:02 left in the first, and that 1-0 lead held through the first intermission.

The Bulls continued to hold the shots-on-goal advantage in the second period, partially thanks to a pair of power plays after the opening goal, and they finally broke through the defense just past the midway point in the game.

Arkhip Ledziankou scored off a Taylor Brierley assist with 6:01 left in the second to tie the game up at 1-1 going into the second intermission.

From there, Birmingham got its third chance with a man advantage with 14:29 left in the third and proved that the third time was the charm. After Filimon Ledziankou and Sinclair set him up on offense, Nikita Kozyrev put the Bulls on top 2-1 with 15:36 remaining.

However, that lead was jeopardized by an illegal check to the head from Kyle Pow just 22 seconds after the go-ahead goal. The officials gave him a match penalty, ejecting him and suspending him from the Saturday match while Birmingham went without Arkhip Ledziankou for 10 minutes while he served the penalty.

However, Carson Rose came up clutch during the penalty kill as he ended his scoring drought with a shorthanded goal, his 20th of the season, to increase the lead to 3-1 with 10:37 left.

While Fayetteville got one back from John Moncovich with 1:37 remaining, Arkhip Ledziankou and Tony Apetagon scored two empty net goals in the final 31 seconds to seal the 5-2 win.

Bulls goaltender Austin Lotz secured 21 saves on the 23 shots he faced to take the win.

The next night, Birmingham also fell behind in the early minutes even while having the shots-on-goal advantage.

Fayetteville’s Dalton Hunter scored with 5:51 remaining in the first to put the hosts up 1-0 going into the first intermission, and Grimshaw doubled up the lead with 14:29 left in the second.

Now facing a 2-0 deficit, the Bulls got a golden opportunity from a Marksmen hooking call with 10:37 remaining in the second. Just 42 seconds into the power play, Apetagon capitalized off MacTavish and Arkhip Ledziankou assists to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Birmingham kept the momentum rolling with another goal 1:30 after that as Kolten Olynek netted a goal off assists from Kozyrev and Jared Christy to tie the game up at 2-2 with 8:25 left in the second.

However, Arkhip Ledziankou committed a holding penalty with 7:03 left until intermission that proved costly for his team. Dalton Hunter scored for the Marksmen just eight seconds into the man-advantage to take the 3-2 lead.

While each team got two power play chances in the third period, neither side came up with a goal as the Bulls fell short in a 3-2 defeat.

Hayden Stewart stopped 20 of the 23 shots that he faced in the loss.

Birmingham will now have a home-and-home series against their in-state rivals the Havoc. First, the Bulls will host Huntsville on Friday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena before a return trip north to the Propst Arena at the Von Braun Center on Saturday, March 1 at 7:05 p.m.