For the first time in two seasons, the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team is going bowling. Finishing the regular season with a record of 9-3, Tulsa was rewarded with a trip to sunny Hawaii where they will take on the 25th ranked Hawaii Warriors in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on December 24 at 7 p.m. Central time. 

"We are excited to be hosting Coach Graham and his Golden Hurricane football squad in the ninth annual Sheraton Hawaii Bowl," Said Hawaii Bowl Executive Director David A.K. Martin. "Spending the Christmas season in Hawaii will be a well-deserved reward for the players, coaches and loyal Tulsa fans," he added.

Tulsa and Hawaii will look to rekindle their rivalry that dates back to Tulsa’s stint in the Western Athletic Conference between 1996-2004. Hawaii won the last meeting between the two squads 44-16 on October 2, 2004 at Aloha Stadium. 

There are more similarities between the two programs than their identical 9-3 records. Both squads are known for offense. Hawaii leads the nation in passing offense, averaging 384.8 yards per game and is ranked tenth in total offense. 

Tulsa, behind junior quarterback G.J. Kinne‘s 3,307 yards and 28 touchdowns, ranks fifth in total offense. Hawaii quarterback Bryant Moniz, a junior, is first in the nation in passing yards and total offense. Moniz has completed 66.2 percent of his passes while throwing 32 touchdown passes. Kinne has completed 60-percent of his passes this season.

Tulsa Head Coach Todd Graham is looking forward to taking the Golden Hurricane to their fifth bowl game in the last six years.

"We’re very excited about the opportunity to go to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and play a quality opponent in a 9-3 Hawaii team," he said. "This team has had a great season. We faced some adversity early on and were able to overcome that, had one of the biggest wins in school history over Notre Dame and went on a six-game winning streak at the end. Being 9-3 and getting the opportunity to compete in a bowl game is huge for our program," he said.

"We’ve played well on the road this season," said Graham. "In Hawaii, the key is staying focused on the game and that’s pretty difficult to do. We’ll have to be focused on football, yet enjoy the reward of going to a bowl game, especially going to an unbelievable place like Hawaii. We’ll have to be prepared and ready to play," he added.

Tickets for the game, which will be carried nationally by ESPN, are priced at $40 and are available at TulsaHurricane.com. TU and C-USA are also offering the chance for Hurricane fans to give the gift of tickets to military personnel. The tickets will be distributed to members of all five military branches located on and around the island of Oahu. Fans can also order tickets, or support the tickets for troops campaign by calling 918-631-GOTU (4688).

Hulak shines with 2 goals and an assist in overtime thriller.

TULSA, OK– The Tulsa Oilers are in the middle of a quiet recovery period of late. A slow start through October and the first part of November has turned into a string of wins that head coach Bruce Ramsay and the team can be proud of. Last night’s shootout victory over the Mississippi Riverkings was the Oilers fourth victory in their last five games and for the first time all season, the team appears to be in sync with one another.

A highlight of last nights game was an unusually long shootout series, with the two teams going 12 rounds deep into the tiebreaker before Mike Beausoleil sent the puck whistling past Riverkings goalie Larry Sterling to end the game. Sterling and Oilers goalie Ian Keserich had each stopped 11 shooters before Beausoleil’s mark ended the contest.

Another highlight of the game was the first professional goal by Oilers rookie forward Derek Hulak. Hulak, a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan played junior hockey with the Regina Pats and the Saskatoon Blades scored his first point in the Oilers win over the Evansville Icemen with an assist and his first goal last night. In his last two seasons in Saskatoon Hulak had posted back-to-back 30 goal seasons.

Saturday night saw the return of the Missouri Mavericks to the BOK Center, and they bring a 10-6-2 record into the game with three of those victories coming against the Oilers. The last time they visited Tulsa they handed the Oilers a 5-2 loss, a nearly identical one to a visit to Independence in early November that began with the now infamous bus fire.

Missouri opened the scoring with just two minutes elapsed on the BOK Center scoreboard when Walker Wintoneak caught Oilers goalie Ian Keserich out of position on a rebound of a Toby Lafrance shot. Another assist on the goal went to Olivier Filion and the Mavericks were up 1-0.

The Oilers answered at 12:44 when rookie Derek Hulak scored his second professional goal, sliding the puck past Missouri goalie Gary Festa off assists from Gary Steffes and RJ Linder. Tulsa would assume their first lead of the game with a power play goal with a little more than 30 seconds remaining in the first period when Derek Eastman found the back of the net while on his back in front of Festa. Assisting on the goal was Harrison Reed.

The Maverick would tie the game at 14:11 of the second when Derek Pallardy put the puck behind a sprawling Keserich with Wintoneak and Ray DiLauro assisting. With just 50 seconds remaining Derek Hulak scored his second goal of the night on the power play with Steffes and Sean Erickson. With that goal the Oilers would take a 3-2 lead into the final period. Hulak’s second goal gave the Oilers their 13^th two-goal performance by a Tulsa player this season.

At 15:17 of the 3^rd the Mavericks would tie the game once again with a goal from Carlyle Lewis who got the puck past Ian Keserich with a rising wrist shot from the blue line. The assist on the goal came from Mike Wakita. Regulation time would end as it did on Friday night, with the score tied and an overtime period ahead.

After peppering the Missouri net with four shots in less a minute, at 1:26 of the overtime session Gary Steffes shoved the puck underneath a diving Festa to win the game for the Oilers. Assisting on the goal was the Tulsa Oiler on a hot streak, Derek Hulak.

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Photos by: Kevin Pyle

The win gave the Oilers their 5^th win in six games and a three game wins streak at home for the first time this season, and their first win against the Mavericks this season. The win elevated Tulsa’s overall points total to 17 points, tying them with Odessa in the CHL’s Berry Conference. In the end that Oilers went 2-for-6 on the power play and the Mavericks 0-for-3. Ian Keserich stopped 27 of the Mavericks 30 shots, while Gary Festa turned aside 31 of the Oilers 35 shots on goal.

The Oilers return to the amazing BOK Center on Tuesday, December 7^th against the Rapid City Rush at 7:05pm. Tickets for all Oiler games are available at the BOK Center Box Office, tickets.com, Tulsa area Reasor’s stores, and by calling 1-866-7BOK-CTR
(866-725-5287). More information is available by calling the Oilers office at 918-632-PUCK (7825).

Keserich comes up big in shootout.

TULSA, OK– Ray Miron, the father of the modern CHL did not like the way ties were handled in hockey. Before 1992, if a game ended in a tie, in this country at least, the two teams played a 5 minute overtime and if the score remained tied the game ended, a standings point awarded to both teams and they called it good.

It validated the old sports adage that “a tie is like kissing your sister”. Miron was adamant that the games that were to be played in his Central Hockey League would be played to a conclusion with a hybrid form of tiebreaker that had been practiced overseas for a few years: a five minute overtime and a shootout; where penalty shots…shooters going one-on-one with the goalie would decide the game in a best of five rounds format.

Some people love the format, other hate it, but it proved it’s worth tonight when the Tulsa Oilers took on the Mississippi Riverkings in the amazing BOK Center on Friday night. The two teams would battle 12 rounds into the shootout before Mike Beausoleil found the back of the net behind Mississippi goalie Larry Sterling and sealed the victory for the Oilers, who had seen a 2-1 lead evaporate into a 4-2 deficit by the closing minutes of the third period.

Earlier in the season, the Oilers would have caved in around the disappointment that surrounded a collapse like that but the Oilers battled back with 2 goals after a questionable call by referee Ryan Hersey waved off an apparent goal by Oilers forward Chad Costello, who was coming in fast on Sterling and sent the puck into the upper corner of the net, but after some debate the goal was disallowed.

If anything, the Oilers deserved a power play as Costello was being manhandled by Chris Richards as he took his shot, but Hersey didn’t see the need. Oilers coach Bruce Ramsay was understandably livid, and vented his anger by slamming the gate to the Oilers bench violently several times. The incident so inspired Tulsa rookie Derek Hulak to score his first goal as a professional to close the gap, assisted by fellow rookie Brennan Barker and Gary Steffes at 7:48. Chad Costello would then knot the score at 4 a piece with a goal at 16:41 of the third.

In the end, it was the near perfect goaltending by Oilers goalie Ian Keserich that kept pace with 11-out of -12 Mississippi shooters, with Riverkings Brian Ihnacak getting the only goal in the shootout while Steffes and Beausoleil would get the others to seal the Oilers 5-4 victory. Tonight marked the first overtime loss by Mississippi, who fell to 9-10-1 with 19 points. In all, Keserich would stop 34-of-38 while Larry Sterling would block 33-of-37 Oilers shots. The Oilers would go 1-for-4 on the power play while Mississippi would not convert on all four of their power play opportunities.

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Photos by: Kevin Pyle

The Oilers will be back in action tomorrow night against the Missouri Mavericks at 7:35pm in the BOK Center. It will be the Oilers annual Teddy Bear Toss presented by the Warren Clinic. Bring a Teddy Bear and when the Oilers score their first goal you can toss it onto the ice rink where they will be collected and sent to needy families all over Tulsa.

Tickets for all Oilers games are available at the BOK Center Box Office, Tickets.com, Tulsa area Razor’s stores, and by calling 1-866-7BOK-CTR (866-725-5287). More information is available by calling the Oilers office at 918-632-PUCK (7825).

The Tulsa 66ers jumped out to an early lead over the Austin Toros and never looked back, as they pulled off their second-straight home win, 94-83 in front of an announced crowd of 2,748 at the Tulsa Convention Center Thursday night. Larry Owens and Jerome Dyson led Tulsa with 18 points each while Latavious Williams recorded a double-double in his first game of the season. Williams, the second-year 66er that last season became the first player to make the jump from high school and straight into the NBA D-League, added 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Tulsa started off with a quick 4-0 lead Elijah Millsap dunk and a layup from Owens within the first minute, as the defense keyed in on the Toros. "I thought our guys played with great effort and energy from the beginning," said 66ers head coach Nate Tibbetts. "We’ve been giving up 107 points a game defensively and one of our goals tonight was to try to hold them under 100 (points) and our guys really stepped up and did that.

The 66ers displayed a strong defensive effort, and came away with 18 rebounds, including five from Oklahoma City Thunder asignee Cole Aldrich, while the Toros managed 11 boards. Owens’ nine points paved the way for a 28-15 Tulsa lead after one quarter of play.

Austin pulled back within nine points at the half, despite Tulsa’s defense holding them to a field goal percentage of .295. Austin head coach Brad Jones was ejected from the game at half-time after picking up his second technical foul in 36-seconds. 

With less than a minute remaining, Jones became very vocal while protesting a non-call during a Toros possession, resulting in a technical. Zabian Dowdell sank the free throw to put Tulsa ahead 46-33 before the final seconds ticked off of the clock. As the Toros left the bench to head to the locker room, Jones approached the officiating crew as they stood at mid-court and began shouting. He was promptly tossed, which resulted in Tulsa starting the second half with a free throw and possession of the ball.

The 66ers led by as many as 19 points until the Toros outscored them 17-5 through the middle of the third quarter to cut Tulsa’s lead to single-digits. Michael Joiner‘s jump shot with 43-seconds left cut the 66ers lead to five at the break. 

Tulsa slowly rebuilt their lead in the fourth quarter, moving 10 points ahead on a Tweety Carter trey with 7:40 remaining. The 66ers connected on five-of-eight attempts from behind the arc in the final quarter, and finished the game shooting 42-percent from both the field and three-point range. Tulsa’s high-pressure defense held Austin to 35-percent from the field while the Toros connected on just 25-percent of their three-point attempts.

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Photos by: Kevin Pyle

The 66ers (3-2) will now hit the road to take on the Texas Legends (3-1) in Frisco, Texas. Tulsa will return to the Convention Center to host the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in a 4 p.m. tip-off. The Vipers were crowned as the 2009-10 D-League champions after defeating the 66ers two games to none in a best-of-three series last April. 

Tickets for all 66ers home games are available online or by calling 918-585-8444.