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On Friday, March 8, Birmingham Bulls center Drake Glover made SPHL history as the second player in league to ever score four goals in one period. (Seth Allen/Birmingham Bulls)

By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Writer

PELHAM – On Friday, March 8, Birmingham Bulls center Drake Glover made SPHL history as the second player in league to ever score four goals in one period. Glover now shares the record set by Kevin Swindler in 2010.

This feat was part of a successful weekend as the Birmingham Bulls won back-to-back games against the Fayetteville Marksmen on March 8-9.

The first game started slow. Despite dominating possession in the first period, the Bulls were unable to capitalize on two power plays and an Aidan Ryan penalty shot on Marksmen goalie Brandon Perrone.

The first period ended without much fanfare as neither team was able to put a score up on the board, but this would all change in the second period.

The historic second period began with Marksmen goaltender Perrone committing a delay of game penalty with Zach Nazzarett serving in the penalty box.

On the resulting power play, Glover scored his first goal of the night as the deflected puck ricocheted into the net after a wraparound attempt.

The Bulls were unable to enjoy their lead for long. Less than two minutes later, the Marksmen answered with a goal from Tyler Barrow, tying up the game. Then, after a Jonathan Pace holding call, Fayetteville’s Cameron Cook scored a power play goal at the 9:54 mark.

And, apparently, Glover took that personally.

At the 11:29 mark, the Birmingham Bulls capitalized on an icing call, taking possession during a faceoff to allow Glover to sink another puck into the net. Invigorated by this goal, Glover charged into the Marksmen zone and scored again with a top-shelf zinger that sailed right past the goaltender’s head at the 15:54 mark.

Glover’s third goal electrified the crowd as fans lobbed baseball caps onto the ice, but Glover wasn’t satisfied with a mere hat trick.

Three minutes later, he came back again during a power play for more. After a shot attempt, the Fayetteville goaltender laid out across his crease to stop the puck, but still couldn’t prevent Glover from scooping up the rebound.

With his fourth goal in the second period alone, Glover tied the SPHL record for most goals in one period.

Despite the total six goals scored between the two teams in the second period, the third period began much like the first: scoreless. As the clock ran down, the Marksmen decided to pull their goaltender with a little more than five minutes left in the game for the extra attacker.

The resulting six-on-five player advantage on the ice became six-on-four players when Birmingham’s Pace earned a cross-checking penalty.

Although the Bulls were able to survive this penalty kill unscathed, the Marksmen went on the power play again after Bulls Parker Allison committed a delay of game penalty. The Bulls were not so lucky a second time as Fayetteville’s Matthew Araujo scored at the 17:42 mark.

With a score of 4-3, the Marksmen’s briefly put Perrone back in goal before pulling him once again for the extra attacker. The strategy did not tie up the game as Fayetteville hoped, but rather allowed Birmingham’s Matt Wiesner to score on an empty net.

Nevertheless, the Marksmen pulled Perrone one last time, resulting in an empty net goal for Carson Rose.

The final score of the game was 6-3, with Glover accounting for four of the nine total goals in the game.

The next night on Saturday, March 9, the Birmingham Bulls and the Fayetteville Marksmen faced off again, with Barrow opening the scoring for the Marksmen at the 8:43 mark.

Continuing with his momentum from the previous night, Glover answered this goal with one of his own less than three minutes later. Birmingham’s CJ Walker followed with another goal at the 14:47 mark to give the Bulls an early lead.

After an uneventful second period, where the only call made was a high-sticking penalty from Troy MacTavish, the third period was an action-packed spectacle with three power play goals in four minutes.

Bulls’ Nikita Kozyrev kicked off the scoring at the 3:26 mark after a tripping penalty from Kyle Soper. A little more than a minute after this goal, Zac Masson of the Bulls went to the box for holding, allowing Fayetteville’s Barrow to score a goal just five seconds later at the 4:39 mark.

After a holding penalty from Rose, Barrow decided he might as well get a hat trick of his own and scored his third goal of the night at the 7:18 mark.

With the score tied up, the game went into a short overtime with Rose scoring the game winning goal after a little over three minutes of play.

At the end of the weekend, the Birmingham Bulls emerged with two victories, both Glover and Barrow scored hat tricks and Glover joined the SPHL record book with four goals in one period. Birmingham remains atop the SPHL standings with 71 points, two points clear of the second-place Peoria Rivermen.

The Bulls will return to the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena on Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16 at 7 p.m. as they take on the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs in a rematch of the 2023 President’s Cup Finals.

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