Tulsa edges Arizona

For only the second time this season the Tulsa Oilers swept a series of game over a weekend when they defeated the Arizona Sundogs 4-3 in the BOK Center on Sunday afternoon.  It was the second straight win against the Sundogs and with a 4-1 win last night over Wichita the Oilers have won three-in-a-row. Arizona got on the board first with a goal by Bryan Cameron, who slapped the puck past Oilers goalie Shane Madolora at the 4:13 mark of the opening period.   At about the 9 minute mark Arizona newcomer Tommy Maxwell lined up the Oilers Ben Gordon and delivered a vicious check to the head that sent Gordon crumpling to the ice and touching off two separate altercations.  Kyle Bochek took on Maxwell and Jake Obermeyer restrained Garrett Clarke.  Gordon was uninjured and finished the game,  Maxwell was assessed a four-minute double minor for roughing in addition to a fighting major by referee Brent Coloumbe.  Obermeyer and Clarke were assessed 10-minute misconducts.

On the ensuing power play at the 11:40 mark of the first period, Ryan Menei snapped a wrist shot off the glove of Sundogs' goalie Andrew Engelage and Drew Fisher sent a bouncing pass out front to Macaulay.  The rookie forward swatted the puck past Engelage for his fifth goal of the season and knotted the score at 1-1.

Just 15 seconds elapsed into the second period Alexandre Beauregard scored after taking a beautiful pass from Macauley and flipping it past Engelage to give the Oilers their first lead of the game.  It was Beauregard’s second goal of the season and the Oilers carried the 2-1 lead into the third period.

Cameron got his second goal of the night a little over 3 minutes into the final period to tie the game 2-2, but at 13:36 Drew Fisher returne the lead to the home team when he took a neat pass from Adam Pleskach in the corner and snapped the puck over Engelage’s blocker.  Then the home team got an apparent insurance goal with just over two minutes remaining, defenseman Jake Obermeyer found an opening in the middle of the Sundogs zone and zipped a snap shot underneath the crossbar to give the Oilers a 4-2 lead.

Arizona, refusing to go quietly, responded in just 30 seconds as Travis Oullette re-directed a shot through the pads of Madolora to bring the Sundogs back within one goal.  Through several starts, stops, and face-offs in the final 90 seconds, the Oilers clamped down defensively to stave off the Sundogs comeback bid and preserve the win.

The last time the Oilers completed a sweep of a weekend set of games was when they defeated Wichita twice and Brampton once each over the November 15-17 weekend.  The win saw Tulsa improve to 13-9-2 with 28 points and into sole possession of second place in the Central Hockey League, four points behind Rapid City.  Arizona dropped their 5th straight game in a row, falling to 7-13-1 on the season and into 9th place.

From here the Oilers will travel to the Great White North to the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario for the first time for a three-game set with the Beast.  On November 17th Tulsa defeated Brampton 6-3 at home.  As of this writing the Beast have played 22 games, (Tulsa has played the most games of any team in the CHL at 24), and they are in 6th place just above the .500 mark at 11-10-1 with 23 points.

The next home game for the Oilers is on December 20th when the Quad City Mallards visit the BOK Center, where Tulsa will look to avenge the 9-3 drubbing the received at the hands of the Mallards on November 30th.