It was a very successful season opening weekend for the Tulsa Oilers hockey team. Tulsa swept a two-game series on Saturday and Sunday against Rapid City and did it by scoring a lot of goals.
On Saturday, six different players got on the scoresheet for the Oilers, as they defeated the Rush, 7-1, in front of 13,180 fans at the BOK Center.
Veteran Tyler Poulsen opened the scoring with a shot past Rapid City’s goalie, Connor Murphy, 4:33 into the game. Justin Michaelian scored his first goal in an Oilers uniform eight minutes later.
Rapid City got its only goal of the game when Connor Mylymok blasted a shot in the upper corner of the goal with 3:19 remaining in the opening period.
Just 1:05 into the second period, Michael Farren netted his first goal of the season, followed by Sean Olson who scored on a trick move to make the score 4-1.
Ruslan Gazizov extended the Oilers lead to 5-1 by scoring Tulsa’s first power-play goal of the season, on the team’s first power-play opportunity of the season. Sasha Pastujov made it 6-1 just 24 seconds later.
With 6:38 remaining in the third period, a penalty shot was called for Rapid City’s Maurizio Colella, but he was stopped by Oilers goalie Vyacheslav Buteyets.
Gazizov scored his second of the game with 4:18 remaining in the contest, closing the opening-night victory 7-1.
On Sunday, the Oilers defeated the Rush 4-1 for the weekend sweep.
The teams were scoreless in the first period. Andrew Lucas broke the scoreless deadlock in the second period, firing a short side shot above goalie Matt Radomsky to secure his first professional goal and a 1-0 lead.
Brady Poteau scored the only goal of the game for the Rush with 12:00 left in the third period.
Tulsa’s Mike McKee scored with 3:49 left on the clock, snapping a wrist shot from the left point into the top-right corner beyond a sliding Radomsky. Tyler Poulsen netted a pair of empty-net goals in the final minute of the game, closing the score 4-1 and giving the forward three goals and four points during the opening weekend.
The Oilers are home again today (Thursday) to host the Allen Americans at 10:35 a.m. The next home game for Tulsa will be Oct. 26 at 7:05 p.m.
TULSA BEACON RADIO
Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national level guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. This week my guest will be longtime Tulsa sports broadcaster and Washington Nationals television play-by-play man, Bob Carpenter. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.