The Texas Brahmas took on the Tulsa Oilers for a second night last night; this time at NYTEX. The Oilers had snapped the Brahmas winning streak at 7 Friday night in Tulsa, and the purple and black were looking for revenge.
Six minutes into the first, Ian Keserich was saved from a goal by just inches, as a shot pinked off of the post. That has to be the worst sound in hockey to anyone but a goalie.
Then, with 12:38 left to play in the first, Tyler Barr took on Gerome Giudice after Guidice laid a cheap shot on him. This was just the first Oiler to leave with a few new facial discolorations.
There were a few questionable tripping calls to Hogg and then Phil Fox, and a tripping call to Steffes of the Oilers with 5:06 in the frame. This is where Ian Keserich began his deceptive play. Twice during this power play, Ian kicked his own goal off when he felt threatened by the Brahmas. Nothing was called yet.
The 2nd period started with the Brahmas on a three second power play that had run over from a late tripping penalty to Mike Ulrich. The Brahmas were buzzing around the Oil net once again, and with just 34 seconds ticked off of the clock in the period, Keserich once again kicked his own net off to stop the momentum of the Brahmas. This time, the ref Zak Blazic had had enough finally and called Keserich for delay of game. This should have been done earlier to stop the cheating, but at least he did finally call it.
Yet another post was hit during the power play, making 2 posts hit thus far, and three times the Oil goalie kicked his net off.
With just under 5 minutes into the frame, Ryan Hand was called for misconduct, and ejected. I am not sure what all had happened, but it seemed like the Oiler player had ran into Hand, and Hand just stood his ground, making the Oiler fall and Hand not. It must have been the argument that Hand and Wildfong (and every other Brahma fan in attendance) was throwing up that got him ejected. Either way, it was a horrible call to begin with.
Guggenberger made more big saves to keep the Oil scoreless. Dan Nicholls also made several great defensive plays, including sacrificing his body to block a shot.
Erick Spady then took exception to Jason Weeks and the two took helmets and gloves off and squared off. After staring each other down for a while, Spady started throwing and landing quality punches. Spady won the fight, hands down.
But we were not done chuckin knuckles yet.
Ryan Cramer of the Oilers, I hope you read this, and I hope you take exception to it, as I took major exception to what you did. Cramer came in head hunting on Ross Rouleau, and laid an open ice head hit on Rouleau. It was not a clean hit, and it was clear what Cramer’s intent was: to take Rouleau out, maybe indefinitely. Rouleau went down in a heap; tried to get up once, and fell back down. Teammate Andrew Lackner grabbed hold of Cramer and the two of them dropped the gloves; Lackner standing up for his teammate. Somehow, Lackner got a 2 minute instigating minor and a 10 minute penalty. I’m sorry, but doesn’t throwing a head shot at an opposing player instigating getting the mess kicked out of you? Cramer was given a max penalty and ejected. I have not heard yet as to if there will be further discipline, but there sure should be.
Rouleau had been out around a month ago for a head injury, so when he went down this time, worries struck everyone. Somehow, Rouleau proved just how tough he was and came right back into the game, checking harder than ever. When Rouleau gets in his moods, the boards themselves fear him; much less the other players.
It was three minutes and twelve seconds to go in the period when Tulsa lit the lamp behind Guggenberger behind a Gio Flamminio slapper. The Brahmas had a close call at the very end of the 2nd as a shot was called to have hit the top crossbar and bounce out. To those around, we thought it had hit the net just inside the top crossbar and bounced back out. Either way, it was called as a no goal, and the period ended with the Brahmas down 1-0.
The third period started with Woollard taking a high sticking penalty. He did get his stick up, and the penalty was justified. It was Dan Nicholls again who helped save the day as he cleared a rebounded loose puck away from a breaking Oiler who was looking at an open net.
After serving the penalty, Woollard made history happen again. With 15:58 left in the game, Woollard took a pass from Jim Burichin at the Oiler blue line and came in on the far side. He skated and puckhandled around the Oiler defenders, and brought it all the way across the front of the net to pop it in backhand. A beautiful goal to put Woollard in a tie for 10th all time in the CHL all time goal scoring. Congrats to you, Mr. Woollard.
A few more big hits, including a monster open ice hit by Spady, and Guggenberger making elephant sized saves, and we were still tied at 1 going into the final 2 minutes of the game.
An icing by the Oilers set up an offensive faceoff with just 1:57 left in the game. The faceoff was won, Spady took a slapper from the point, and team captain Adam Hogg found the rebound for the game winning goal. Cal Wild added a goal with just 4 seconds to go on an empty netter.
The boxscore from the game can be found here
All Chad Woollard stats can be found here
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