Oilers fall to Bloomington in OT on Batman promotion night
BY JOHN RITTENOURE World Correspondent
Saturday, November 24, 2012
11/24/12 at 4:59 AM
Not even Batman could save the slumping Tulsa Oilers on Friday night at the BOK Center.
On a Central Hockey League three-game losing streak, the Oilers called in a little superhero help for their game with the Bloomington Blaze. Batman was seen in the building as was Batgirl. The Oilers wore Batman jerseys and played as the Gotham City Crusaders.
It was all in good fun, but the game outcome was not. The second-place Blaze edged the Oilers 6-5 in overtime, handing Tulsa its fourth straight loss before a Black Friday crowd of 5,356.
Tulsa fought hard with Gary Steffes scoring his third goal of the night to give the Oilers their second lead of the game at 5-4. Ben Gordon tied the game for Tulsa just two minutes earlier. But Kyle Bochek scored his second goal of the night for the Blaze at the 10-minute mark to send the game into overtime. At 2:22 in overtime, Jesse Dudas scored on a breakaway to hand Bloomington the win.
"We battled tonight and had tons of good scoring chances," Oilers coach Bruce Ramsay said of his team, which had a season-high 45 shots to 38 for the Blaze. "Seems like every time we make a mistake the puck is in the back of our net. Almost all of their goals tonight was from mistakes that we made.
"It is frustrating. We were down 4-2 and battled back in the third period. The effort was there but I think our goaltending could have been better tonight."
Steffes now has 10 goals on the season with his hat trick.
"I felt really thankful tonight," said Steffes. "Our team is fighting through some adversity but our team is going to come out on the other side with a heck of a lot of character."
Defenseman Gio Flamminio put Tulsa ahead for the second time with a wrist shot from the blue line at 14:07 of the second period to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead. However, the Blaze exploded for three goals in a four-minute span to take a 4-2 advantage.
Kyle Bochek fired the puck in behind Oilers goalie Dan Bakala at 15:44. A minute later Nicholas Rioux found the net, then Travis Granbois blasted a backhander past Bakala.
With five seconds remaining in the period, Gary Steffes was able to get the puck past Blaze goalie Gerry Festa for his second of the night to pull the Oilers within one, 4-3.
Steffes gave Tulsa the initial 1-0 lead in the first period just 2:48 into the game before Matthew Larke scored unassisted at 8:51 to tie the score.
Game Notes: Tulsa travels to Quad City on Saturday. The next home game is Nov. 30 when the Oilers host first-place Allen at the BOK Center.
BLOOMINGTON 6, TULSA 5 (OT)
| Bloomington |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
- |
6 |
| Tulsa |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
- |
5 |
First Period: 1, Tulsa, Steffes, 8 (Mariani, Beauregard) 2:48. 2, Bloomington, Larke, 6 (unassisted) 8:53. Penalties: Tulsa, Cramer (roughing) 3:37. Tulsa, Flamminio (elbowing) 4:49. Bloomington, Batik (high sticking) 5:08. Bloomington, Granbois (roughing) 10:02. Tulsa, Steffes (holding) 14:50. Bloomington, Granbois (cross checking) 19:01.
Second Period: 3, Tulsa, Flamminio, 1 (Register, Beauregard) 14:07. 4, Bloomington, Bochek, 1 (Granbois) 15:44. 5, Bloomington, Rioux, 2 (Booras, Dudas) 16:44. 6, Bloomington, Granbois, 6 (Gron) 19:42. 7, Tulsa, Steffes, 9 (Mariani, Fisher) 19:54. Penalties: Bloomington, Walker (roughing double minor) 17:26. Tulsa, Fleck (roughing) 17:26.
Third Period: 8, Tulsa, Gordon, 9 (Ullrich, Menei) 4:07. 9, Tulsa, Steffes, 10 (Register, Gingera) 6:09. 10, Tulsa, Bochek, 1 (Booras) 10:00. Penalties: Tulsa, Steffes (slashing) 6:20.
Overtime: 11, Bloomington, Dudas, 9 (Booras) 2:22. Penalties: None.
Power Plays: Bloomington, 0-4. Tulsa, 0-4.
Shots: Bloomington, 14-15-5-4--38. Tulsa, 18-11-14-2--45.
Saves: Bloomington, Festa 17-9-12-2--40. Tulsa, Bakala 13-12-4-3--32.
Referee: Tutor Floru. A: 5,356.
Original Print Headline: Blaze overtakes Oilers in OT
CHL
Up next
At Quad City
7:05 p.m. Saturday
Associated Images:
Oilers forward Mike Ullrich skates up the ice against Bloomington on Friday night at the BOK Center. KEVIN PYLE/For the Tulsa World
Tulsa Oilers forward Michel Beausoleil keeps the puck away from Bloomington forward Nicklas Lindberg at the BOK Center on Friday. KEVIN PYLE/for the Tulsa World
Oilers forward Mike Ullrich skates up ice against Bloomington. KEVIN PYLE/for the Tulsa World
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