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Rivers Complete Sweep with 6-2 Blitzing of Oilers
Tulsa Suffers Second Straight Drubbling by Memphis
December 29, 2002
by Janna Kinder TulsaHockey.net
The Memphis RiverKings continued their dominance of the Tulsa Oilers Sunday night at the DeSoto Civic Center, winning decisively in a 6-2 decision over a struggling Tulsa squad.
Over the last month,
the Oilers have been plagued with inconsistent play and have struggled through their worst stretch of hockey thus far this season. With the RiverKings sweeping of the Oilers in this weekend's home and home
series, Tulsa's record for December dropped to 4-6-2.
Tulsa was also short two players, as forwards Chris Johnston and Dallas Anderson were not in the lineup for Sunday's game. Both players were given
gross misconduct penalties in Saturday's match versus the RiverKings at the Tulsa Convention Center.
The RiverKings got on the board at 5:59 of the first period when Jonathon Gagnon fired a shot from
the left wing over the right shoulder of Oiler netminder Rod Branch. Kahlil Thomas and Luch Nasato assisted on Gagnon's 5th goal of the season.
The Oilers tied it at 1 when forward Todd Marcellus sent
a centering pass in front from behind the RiverKing net to Justin Ossachuk, who fired the puck past Memphis goaltender Jean-Francois Racine at 13:52 of the first for his 10th goal of the season. Defenseman
Mike Johnson was given the second assist on the power play goal.
With Memphis defenseman Brian Tucker in the box for slashing, Ossachuk struck again for the Oilers to make it 2-1, deflecting a rebound
off a slapshot by Jamie Steer into the net at 18:45 of the first. A secondary assist went to Marcellus.
The 'Kings tied the game at 2 when Don Parsons flicked a wrist shot from the left wing circle
past Branch at 1:12 of the second period. The power play goal, which was Parson's 22nd goal of the season, was assisted by Jay Neal and Brad Mueller.
Memphis took a 3-2 lead at 5:35 of the second when
Thomas was able to poke the puck into the open Oiler net from inside the left wing circle, as Branch had cheated too far to the right side in attempt to cover Tucker, who, along with Gagnon, assisted on the
go ahead goal.
The 'Kings doubled up on Tulsa at 10:44 of the second when Tucker scored on a rebound from close range for his 6th goal of the season.
Gagnon gave Memphis a 5-2 lead at 8:33 of
the third period, deflecting a shot by Neal, bouncing the puck off Branch's leg into the net.
Neal closed out the scoring at 15:30 of the third period, assisted by Parsons.
The Oilers look to
regroup on Tuesday night as they face the Wichita Thunder at the Kansas Coliseum for a 6:00 p.m. match. |
