Oilers spoil opening night party.
WICHITA, KS--The Tulsa Oilers got back to their winning ways Saturday night as they entered the brand new Intrust Bank Arena in downtown Wichita to take on the Wichita Thunder, who had handed them an embarrassing 4-1 drubbing in the amazing BOK Center on Friday night.
After proclaiming publicly that his team had more followers than leaders it would be interesting to see how Bruce Ramsay’s team would handle the inference that he was going to make some changes. Before the game it was announced that former Texas Brahma, Rio Grande Valley Killer Bee, and Mississippi Riverking player Travis Banga had joined the Oilers, having spent the first part of the 2009-2010 campaign in Muskegon and Bloomington of the IHL. In a previous tour of duty in the CHL, Banga had scored better than 20 goals in four seasons.
There was no scoring in the 1st period, but the players took up where they left off the previous night with Thomas Harrison and Shane Foster squaring off 3 seconds into the contest. That was followed at 2:39 with another bout between Tyler Fleck and JR Bria. The only other altercation in the game would be between Jake Riddle and Bria, later in the 3rd period.
The first goal scored in the Thunder’s new arena came from a former Tulsa Oiler Paul Kelly, who had scored Wichita’s fitst goal Friday night, at 9:21 of the 2nd period assisted by Brandon Kaleniecki and Shane Foster. The 3rd period would be where Tulsa would do all their scoring, with TJ Caig putting on past Thunder goalie Ian Keserich at 5:21, assisted by Aaron davis and Derek Eastman. Thomas Harrison would break the tie on assists by Jim Henkemeyer and Dan Riedel at 12:51, and the final horn sounded with the Oilers on top 2-1.
The Oilers return to the friendly conficnes of the BOK Center on Sunday for a maitinee performance against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees at 4:05pm. Tickets for the game and for all remaining Oilers home games can be purchased at the BOK Center Box Office, all Reasors locations, and tulsaoilers.com.