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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Birmingham Bulls may have struggled to gain momentum for much of the season, but they may now be the hottest team in the SPHL as they finished off a eight-game win streak with a weekend-series sweep of the Evansville Thunderbolts.

In their final games of the regular season, the Bulls defeated the Thunderbolts 5-4 in a shootout on Friday, April 4 before winning 2-1 on Saturday, April 5 at the Ford Center.

With the win Friday, Birmingham locked up the No. 4 seed and will have home ice advantage for its Presidents Cup Playoffs quarterfinal against the No. 5 Fayetteville Marksmen. Game one will be Thursday, April 10 at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville before games two and three at home.

Game two will be Saturday, April 12 at 7:05 p.m. at the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena. If the teams split the first two games, a decisive game three will be Sunday, April 13 at 3 p.m. in Pelham.

In the first game of the series, the Thunderbolts raced ahead to a 2-0 lead with two goals in the opening 1:27 of the game.

However, Kolten Olynek helped the Bulls cut the deficit to 2-1 as he scored off assists from Nikita Kozyrev and Andrew Bellant with 8:03 remaining in the first.

After trailing by a goal going into the first intermission, Filimon Ledziankou knotted up the game at 2-2 with 6:54 left in the second as he took advantage of a pass from Shane Murphy, who earned his first assist in a Bulls uniform.

However, after neither team capitalized on either of their two power play chances in the first period, Evansville punished Birmingham for committing the lone penalty of the second period, a tripping call by Kyler Matthews with 5:19 remaining in the period.

Aidan Litke then scored with 3:24 left until intermission to earn a power play goal and retake a 3-2 lead ahead of the third period. He then secured his second goal of the game just 43 seconds into the third period to extend the Thunderbolts’ lead to 4-2.

Just 59 seconds later though, Bellant helped the Bulls respond, scoring off assists from Arkhip Ledziankou and Matthews to cut the deficit to one.

Birmingham then got an opportunity to strike off an Evansville roughing call with 8:58 remaining, and MacGregor Sinclair scored 25 seconds into the power play to tie the game at 4-4 and force overtime.

After a scoreless overtime period, the teams went into a shootout and missed their first round of chances. Olynek and the Thunderbolts’ Scott Kirton then scored in the second round to tie it at 1-1, and a breakthrough came when Evansville missed its third penalty. Filimon Ledziankou converted his to take the 2-1 lead.

The Thunderbolts’ Logan vande Meerakker and Kozyrev then scored in the fourth round to leave Birmingham up 3-2, and Litke missed Evansville’s fifth-round penalty to seal the shootout win for the Bulls.

Bellant was the First Star with a goal and two assists while Kozyrev earned the third start with a goal and an assist. Hayden Stewart stopped 42 of the 46 shots he faced to earn the shootout win.

In the second game of the series, Birmingham got off to a better start and got on the scoreboard first. Connor Scahill found Shane Murphy on a pass, and Murphy fired home his first goal in a Bulls uniform to take a 1-0 lead with 13:45 left in the first period.

Evansville would dominate the shots on goal in the first period, outshooting Birmingham 15-9, but the Bulls had a chance to change that when the Thunderbolts’ Jordan Simoneau went to the box with a roughing minor with 7:02 remaining in the period.

However, it was Evansville who struck as Matthew Hobbs scored a shorthanded goal just 10 seconds after the penalty to tie the game up at 1-1 going into the first intermission.

Birmingham got a second chance on the power play with 12:30 remaining in the second thanks to a slashing call on Derek Contessa. While the Bulls didn’t score during the two-minute man-advantage, they did just two seconds after the Thunderbolts got back to full strength.

Cole Jungwirth and Filimon Ledziankou found Arkhip Ledziankou, and he scored his 18th goal of the season with 10:28 remaining in the second to take the 2-1 lead. The assist was Jungwirth’s first in the Birmingham red and black.

While the Bulls held that lead through the second intermission, they had to weather a major storm when Arkhip Ledziankou earned a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a cross-check. The league office did not deem his penalty worthy of a playoff suspension, but Birmingham had to endure a five-minute penalty kill.

However, the Bulls kept the back of the net clean even as Evansville outshot them 13-5 in the final 20 minutes. As a result, Birmingham walked away with the 2-1 win to head into the playoffs on a high note.

Austin Lotz earned the First Star by saving 35 of the 36 shots he faced in 60 minutes of ice time, and Murphy took the Third Star for his maiden goal of his Bulls career.

Now, the focus for Birmingham shifts to the first-round series with the Fayetteville Marksmen as it aims to continue its win streak on the road on Thursday to get a chance to sweep the series in front of the Pelham fans on Saturday night.

Playoff tickets are on sale now on Ticketmaster or at the Pelham Civic Complex Box Office.