Wichita routs Oilers 6-1

It was not a good night for the Tulsa Oilers when they faced the Wichita Thunder on Tuesday night in the BOK Center.  Last week the Oilers won a 4-0 decision against an out-of-sync Thunder that had basically everything go wrong for them on every level.  One week later, it happened again, this time to Tulsa.

Nick McParland began the Thunder rout at 8:18 of the first period, when he skated underneath a lob pass from Jason Wilson and sped unimpeded into the Oilers zone.  McParland neatly tucked the puck between the toe of Oilers goalie Shane Madolora and the post to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.  Five minutes later, on their only power play of the night, the Thunder extended their advantage thanks to a quick wrist shot from between the circles off the stick of Matt Robinson.  Wichita carried a 2-0 edge into the second period. Any thought that the Oilers may have had of a comeback was erased in the second frame.  Oilers goalie Shane Madolora had to face a penalty shot just 16 second into the period after Travis Wight was pulled down by the Oilers Todd Robinson on a breakaway.  Madalora turned aside the shot easily, but just 45 seconds later, with the Oilers on the power play Thunder forward RG Flath re-directed a Jared Walker pass over Madolora to push the score to 3-0.

Three unanswered Wichita goals was enough for Tulsa head coach Bruce Ramsay, and he sent goalie Ross MacKinnon in relief of Madolora at that point.  Madolora finished the night saving 8 of 11 Thunder shots.  Three minutes later McParland got his second goal of the night sliding the disc underneath MacKinnon to give the visitors a 4-0 edge.

The only bright spot for Tulsa came on the power play in the second period when rookie Adam Pleskach solved Wichita goalie Taylor Nelson at 9:37 to extend his point streak to 7 games withy his seventh goal of the season.  Sadly, however, any momentum the Oilers gained from that goal was quickly quashed  as Robinson connected for his second goal of the night at 13:45 to send the Thunder into the second intermission with a 5-1 lead.

Jared Walker added Wichita’s 6th and final goal at 10:32 of the third and the game ended with Tulsa on the light end of the scoreboard.  Thunder goalie Taylor Nelso made 37 saves on 38 shots for Tulsa, who had the SOG edge for most of the game.  MacKinnon wound up making nine saves on 12 shots he faced in 39 minutes in the Oilers net.

Two streaks ended on Tuesday night.  Tulsa’s win streak ended at four with the loss and Wichita’s eight-game losing streak came to an end with Nelson’s second victory of the year.  Both teams will hook it up again this weekend in a two game set in Wichita at the InTrust Bank Center in downtown Wichita.  The Oilers next home game will be on Sunday afternoon when the expansion Brampton Beast come to town for the very fits time to face the Oilers at 4:05pm in the BOK Center.

Brampton is a suburb of Toronto, Ontario and they are the first team in the CHL from Canada.  At this writing the Beast are 6-4-1 on the season with 13 points.  They currently hold the 5th place position in the standings, on place above the Oilers.

Tickets for Sunday’s game and all remaining Tulsa Oilers home games are available at the  BOK Center box office or at the Oilers office at 9128 East 46th Street.