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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PELHAM – The Birmingham Bulls opened the weekend with a crucial victory over the Fayetteville Marksmen, but like so many series this season, they couldn’t double up on their success in the back half of the two-game set.

The Bulls secured a 4-1 win over the Marksmen on Friday, Jan. 31 at the Pelham Civic Complex but fell 5-3 on Saturday, Feb. 1 after blowing a 2-0 lead.

In the Friday contest, Birmingham got the first power play opportunity of the game with 7:55 to go in the first period, and it quickly took advantage to take the lead.

Arkhip Ledziankou took passes from his brother Filimon and Troy MacTavish to score just 22 seconds into the man-advantage and give the Bulls a 1-0 lead.

They held that lead through the first intermission after each team failed to capitalize on a power play chance before the period ended.

Birmingham successfully killed off a slashing call with 12:50 remaining in the second and dominated much of the second quarter on offense, outshooting Fayetteville 12-6 after falling behind in that count 11-9 in the first.

The steady volume of offense yielded a second goal for the Bulls, but for Tyler Penner, it was his first of the SPHL season. He scored off assists from Arkhip Ledziankou and Ryan Romeo with 8:45 remaining in the period to increase the lead to 2-0.

Each team ramped up the offense in the third period and combined for 32 shots on goal during the final 20 minutes.

The Bulls failed to capitalize on a power play chance with 12:27 remaining, and with just three seconds left in the penalty time, the Marksmen punished them for that with a shorthanded goal to get on the board and make the score 2-1.

That proved to be the only offense that Fayetteville could muster up as Tony Apetagon became the second Bull to open his scoring account. Thanks to assists from Jamie Dorsey and Romeo, Apetagon restored Birmingham’s two-goal lead with 7:03 left.

MacTavish capped off the evening with an empty net goal with 2:25 remaining to seal the 4-1 victory.

Bulls goaltender Austin Lotz earned the First Star after saving 33 of the 34 shots he faced. Arkhip Ledizankou and Romeo earned the Second and Third Stars thanks to their two-point nights as Arkhip had a goal and an assist while Romeo notched a pair of assists.

Birmingham carried that momentum into the opening period-and-a-half of its second meeting with the Marksmen on Saturday.

Fayetteville committed two penalties in quick succession to give the Bulls a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:33 with 6:23 left in the first. While it took most of the advantage to make it happen, Taylor Brierley scored off passes from MacGregor Sinclair and Romeo to put Birmingham up 1-0 with 4:58 remaining in the period.

The Bulls then found some penalty trouble just 2:20 into the second period with a Sinclair slashing call. However, the team got a measure of revenge for giving up Friday night’s shorthanded goal by scoring one of their own as Filimon Ledziankou scored with 16:54 left in the second to make the lead 2-0.

While the Bulls killed off three more penalties before the midway mark of the second period, including a 5-on-3 disadvantage, their lead quickly vanished after that.

Ryan Nolan and John Moncovich scored two-and-a-half minutes apart from each other to knot the game up at 2-2 with 5:34 left in the second, and that proved to be the last time Birmingham would lead in the game.

Trent Grimshaw gave the Marksmen a 3-2 lead with 12:28 remaining in the game. While Brierley scored his second power-play goal of the contest just past the midway mark in the third, Fayetteville responded with another goal just two-and-a-half minutes later to restore its lead.

Ryan Lieth then slammed the door shut on any hope of a comeback with an empty net goal with one minute remaining to cap off the 5-3 win.

Hayden Stewart finished the night with 23 saves off 27 shots faced.

The Bulls now sit in sixth place in the SPHL standings with 35 points, five off of the fifth-place Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs, who also have two games in hand on Birmingham.

With time running out to secure home-ice advantage in the playoffs, the Bulls will look to right the ship with a pair of road games at the Quad City Storm on Feb. 7 and 8.

They will then return home on Friday, Feb. 14 and Saturday, Feb. 15 for a two-game set against the last-place Pensacola Ice Flyers, with both games set for 7:05 p.m. starts at the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena.