BLOOMINGTON - The Fuel take a road trip to Bloomington to take on the Bison in their first-ever ECHL game. It was a tight contest throughout but the returners for the Fuel proved crucial as they walked away with the 4-2 victory.
1ST PERIOD
The referees swallowed their whistles in the first period as there were no penalties through the first 20 minutes of play.
Andrew Bellant picked up where he left off last season, scoring the first goal of the game at 3:01 of the first frame. Bellant had 19 goals for the Fuel in the 2023-24 season.
Bloomington had few opportunities in the period, only recording three shots on goal to Indy’s nine.
2ND PERIOD
Another quick start in the period for the Fuel as Cam Hausinger scores his first of the preseason just 2:51 into the period, making the score 2-0 Fuel.
After that, it was all Bison for the rest of the period. Two goals came within three minutes of each other, the first coming from Chongmin Lee and the latter from Mitchell Smith, both seeing their first ECHL ice time.
Although the first shot for Bison did not come until 7:20, they outshot the Fuel 11-9 in the period.
There were 16 total penalty minutes in the period, 11 for Bloomington and 13 for Indy, including a pair of fighting majors for Colin Bilek and Jamie Engelbert with just 54 seconds left in the period.
3RD PERIOD
The first half of the period was quiet with defense a prominent factor on both sides. The first action came from Bryan Lemos at 10:51 when he scored the go-ahead goal off a tip-in from Chris Cameron.
In an attempt to tie the game, the Bison would pull the goalie with just over two minutes left down 3-2. Their efforts did not pay off as Jordan Martin would all but end the game with an empty net goal at 18:33.
There were no penalties in the period and the Fuel were outshot in this period 5-6 but won the overall shooting battle 23 shots to Bloomington’s 20.
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