The Indy Fuel fell behind early and never recovered Wednesday night, dropping a 4–1 decision to the Bloomington Bison at the Fishers Event Center.

Bloomington took control with a dominant first period, striking just three minutes into the game on a goal by Parker Gavlas. Twenty-eight seconds later, Daniel Tedesco doubled the lead, and the Bison continued to capitalize as Indy’s penalty trouble mounted. Nikita Sedov scored on the power play at 13:25 to make it 3–0, and captain Eddie Matsushima added another power-play tally less than two minutes later.

The Fuel generated multiple power-play chances of their own, including a lengthy 5-on-3 early in the period, but came up empty. Bloomington outshot Indy 13–7 in the opening frame and carried a 4–0 advantage into intermission.

Indy pushed back in the second period, outshooting the Bison and drawing several penalties, but Bloomington’s penalty kill continued to hold firm. Despite a 19–15 shots-on-goal advantage through two periods, the Fuel still trailed by four.

The third period brought more special-teams action, with Indy killing off three penalties to keep the deficit from growing. The Fuel finally broke through with 2:43 remaining when Jordan Martin scored, assisted by Tyler Kobryn and Dustin Manz, but the late surge wasn’t enough to threaten Bloomington’s lead.

Indy finished with a 31–24 edge in shots but went scoreless on the power play and could not overcome the early four-goal hole.

The Fuel and Bison, division rivals, have now met four times this season.

The Fuel have a two game series with the Adirondack Thunder Friday and Saturday night, both at the Fishers Event Center.