Photo By Johnna Raymond
Déjà vu would occur for many fans in Intrust Bank Arena on Friday night. The scoreboard in Wichita, Kansas would mirror it’s image from the last time Tulsa visited the Thunder—2-1 a shootout win in favor of the Oilers.
Goaltender Matt Grogan, his second game in net, would not be constricted to 60 minutes of play. After a loss to Missouri in a shootout on Tuesday, the Arizona native shined by stopping 24 of 25 shots faced—allowing nothing to pass him in the shootout.
15 shots (12 belonging to the Oilers), 4 penalty minutes and one lone goal in the first period gave the Oilers an early lead. With under 10 minutes left in the frame, Captain Nathan Lutz slapped a shot from the blue line that made it’s way past Thunder netminder David Shantz.
Second period action heightened when the gloves dropped between Tulsa forward Brady Ramsay and Thunder’s Christian Isackson. Each would receive five minutes for fighting–Ramsay an extra two minutes for boarding.
Wichita would capitalize on the Ramsay penalty as defenseman Landon Oslanski tallied his fifth goal on the season–Kale Kerbashian and Logan Nelson as his helpers. At the end of 40, the score would be knotted at 1-1.
For the fourth consecutive time between these two squads, regulation would not decide the outcome. Tonight, neither would overtime. After 65 minutes of hockey, the Oilers and Thunder resorted to a shootout.
Grogan denied all three Thunder shot attempts and a Ramsay netter would seal the deal and end the contest. The Oilers would claimed their fifth victory over the Central Division foes.
Tomorrow night Tulsa will look to sweep the Thunder in the two-game series in home territory at the BOK Center. Themed ‘Retro Night’, the Oilers will sport throw-back jerseys that will be auctioned off after the game.
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Below is an Excerpt for a Tulsa Oilers Game
Jeff: Now the Oilers will bring it back. DeSalvo through the center circle slaps it into the Wichita zone. A minute 19 left in the power play for Tulsa. The Thunder clear the puck out of their own zone again. It goes back into the Tulsa end. Behind the goal is Carr. He’ll leave it there for a teammate. Oilers making a line change. Coming over to get it for Tulsa’s Brisebois. His head pass, I should say, was too far ahead of Brandon Wong and it goes into the Wichita zone. That’s going to be an icing. Bring it back into the Tulsa end. Don’t want to take an icing when you’re on the man advantage here on a power play and you bring the face off back into your own zone. It’s never a good thing. Face off to the left of the goaltender Carr in the Tulsa end.
Neal won the draw. Now he loses it. Stolen away by the Oilers’ Konan. Nice play by Matt Konan around to the far side. Brisebois back to Konan on the left wing. Konan over the red line sends it ahead over the blue line into the Wichita zone. Goes behind the goal. 45 seconds left to go in the power play for the Oilers. Centering pass, top of the slot for Brisebois. He takes it over on the right point. Now to the circle. Shot in front. Goes through to the nearest side. Kept in by Konan on the near side. Now it comes out of the zone in the neutral ice. Brisebois resets for the Oilers. Back to Konan in his own blue line. Konan through the center circle, skates over the blue line with it. Now dumps it off into the corner boards. Oilers with a man advantage. 14 seconds left in the penalty to Wichita.
Oilers with it. Out to the point. Now over on the left side. Konan shot deflected in front. Nice play in front there as the Oilers, who is that? Pleskach was screening the goaltender Shantz, but then as the puck came in, Pleskach was pushed into Shantz. Shantz pushed into the goal post. Goal post comes off its [inaudible 00:36:27], and they’re going to reset the goal with only 4 seconds left now in the Tulsa man advantage.
The face off will come to the right of the goaltender in the Wichita end. Out to the point. Here’s a shot to the goal! [inaudible 00:36:53] a shot by Dennis Brown on the face off that came out to the point, top of the slot and Brown let’s it go. The Oilers are on the board first here in this one. No penalty time on the scoreboard, so I think the penalty had just expired right before the shot. We’ll have to get the official word on that, but I believe the penalty had just expired a second ago. Let me see. The time of the penalty, if I can tell you the time of the penalty, then I should know … It comes at 16:04. It was right at the time the penalty was to expire. What a great play by the Oilers there and a goal. The Oilers take a 1 nothing lead here with just under 4 minutes left to play.
Yeah. 16:04 of the period was the time of that goal. Tulsa on top 1 to nothing. Not sure why but the scoring sheet online is not updating, so I’m trying to find the time of the penalty and I’m trying to get the goal here. They just didn’t put the penalty on there, but the goal is on here now. Here’s a shot on goal of Carr. We’ll stop it. We’ll get a face off in the Tulsa zone as Carr freezes that puck. As I said, Dennis Brown with the goal at 16:04 of the period. The assists go to DeSalvo and Clark, who were on the face off there. Now we got a face off in the tulsa zone. They do have it listed as a power play goal technically on the score sheet. There had to be. They don’t have the last penalty listed on the score sheet for some reason online. They didn’t put it on there, the last slashing penalty to Wichita. I don’t know the time of that penalty and I don’t remember off the top of my head. Nonetheless, they are calling that a power play goal, so the Oilers scored on the power play, and they take the 1 nothing lead.
