The Tulsa Oilers took two wins from the Turner Conference of the CHL on Friday and Saturday night defeating the Evansville Icemen 3-2 on Friday and the Wichita Thunder 5-1 last night..
Chad Costello returned to the Oilers after a brief stint with the Lake Erie Monsters and got back to the point streak he had going when he left for Cleveland, scoring a goal and an assist against the Icemen on Friday night and a goal in Wichita on Saturday night. Costello leads the Oilers in points with 74, which equals out to 29 goals and 45 assists.
Tulsa’s game on Friday night featured Costello’s goal, plus a power play goal by Derek Eastman, his twelfth of the season. Eastman has scored 13 goals so far this season, all but one coming on the power play, and he trails Allen’s Bruce Graham by just one power play tally for the Power Play scoring lead. Michel Beausoleil got the Oilers final goal of the game, scoring on the power play in the third period.
Evansville narrowed the gap to 3-2 late in the game off goals from Erik Boisvert and Mario Larocque, but with goalie Matt Lundin pulled and a power play that gave the Icemen a six-on-four advantage, but it was not enough to tie the game.
Oilers goalie Ian Keserich was flawless through two periods, and in the end would up stopping 35 of 37 Evansville shots. Matt Lundin turned aside 24-of-27 Oilers shots.
On Saturday the Oilers traveled to the InTrust Bank Arena in downtown Wichita, Kansas to face the Thunder, who came into the game, defeating the Bossier Shreveport Mudbugs in a 3-0 shutout on Tueday night and the Mississippi Riverkings 5-2 on Friday. Their game with their longtime rivals would feature a very odd statistic indeed.
This season, the Oilers have not posted a lot of shots on goal. Often in games Tulsa is outshot by as much as two or three to one. In Saturday night’s game the Oilers scored 5 goals on 12 shots, with the first four shots of the game resulting in goals. Wichita, on the other hand, scored just one goal on 53 shots. Mike Wirill, Evan Kotsopoulos, Anthony Battaglia, Marty Standish and Chad Costello all scored goals for Tulsa , while Matt Robinson of the Thunder ruined Ian Keserich’s bid for his third shutout of the season after being acquired from Wichita earlier this season.
Standings wise the Oilers are now in fourth place behind Bossier Shreveport in third place and the Texas Brahmas in second. The Allen Americans are in command of the Berry Conference with 70 points and first place.
The Oilers will remain on the road for the next two games, a pair of games in DeSoto, Mississippi against the Riverkings before returning home to take on the Rapid City Rush on March 1.