By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

PEORIA, Ill. – After a scoreless first 40 minutes in a matchup of No. 1 hosting No. 2, the Peoria Rivermen and Birmingham Bulls put on a show for the crowd the rest of the way at Peoria Civic Center on Friday, Feb. 15

The two teams each posted one goal apiece in the third period, with the Rivermen striking on a shot from Alec Hagaman at the 7:11 mark, followed by the Bulls’ Shane Topf blasting one into the back of the net with 1:31 left in the game to tie it in a big spot.

With Birmingham’s goal coming so late, the 1-1 tie led to overtime, but being such a defensive battle, the extra five-minute period went by scoreless leading to a shootout.

In the shootout, Mavric Sparks flashed his brilliance in goal. While the Bulls were able to score on three of five attempts with Jacob Barber, Justin Larson and Mike Davis all beating Peoria goalkeeper Stephen Klein, the Rivermen missed on their first two attempts and only saw one of four shots hit the back of the net, leading to a 3-1 win in the shootout and a 2-1 victory in the game.

While the Bulls still sits nine points out of first place after the victory, they hold a lead of eight points over third place with 56 total points, and proved with the win, they could win an SPHL title in just their second year with a team.

It marked the first meeting of the year for the two teams that have held the top two spots in the SPHL for the majority of the season, and coming into the matchup, Peoria had lost just three games in regulation with four overtime losses.

Birmingham made that four losses overall and five overtime losses, but the Rivermen were still able to pick up one of two points despite the loss thanks to the overtime period.

Parks stopped 27 of 28 shots outside of the shootout, while stopping three of four in the shootout to shine as one of the top stars for the Bulls in the victory.

Topf, Larson, Nick Owen and Caleb Apperson each had one point to lead Birmingham’s offensive attack.

Birmingham now has back-to-back road games the next two days at Quad City and will return home to host Knoxville for a two-game series between Friday, Feb. 22, and Saturday, Feb. 23.

The Bulls will also host Peoria between Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, for a big late-season series. With less than two months left in the regular season, Birmingham has just nine total home games remaining.