DanDeSalvo celebrates the game winner Tuesday night against the Allen Americans. Photo by Kevin Pyle
TULSA, OK—After a two-and-a-half week road trip the Tulsa Oilers (19-14-4) returned home on Tuesday to the familiar and friendly confines of the BOK Center to take on the Allen Americans (24-15-3).
Speaking of familiar, the teams will become very familiar indeed because in addition to Tuesday night’s contest the two teams will play each other three more times in the next week.
Yesterday, the Tulsa Drillers announced the coaches who have been assigned to work alongside first-year manager Ryan Garko for the 2016 season.
Joining Garko in the dugout will be two newcomers in pitching coach Bill Simas and hitting coach Terrmel Sledge. They will replace Matt Herges and Shawn Wooten respectively, both of whom were promoted to the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers staff to fill the same roles they served in with the Drillers this past season. Returning to the Drillers from the 2015 on-field staff will be coach Leo Garcia.
Photo: Kevin Pyle
The Tulsa Oilers shared a home-and-home series with their oldest rivals on Friday and Saturday nights as they approach the middle of the 2015-16 ECHL campaign. The Oilers occupy the third place position in the ECHL Central Division while the Thunder have been struggling all season and are bringing up the rear in fourth.
Tulsa traveled to south central Kansas on Friday night to take on the Thunder with the suspension depleted roster courtesy of the brawl in Rapid City on January 2.
TULSA, OK—Tuesday nights’ Tulsa Oilers hockey game was surprising on many levels.
Going in, the Oilers fans were all gritting their teeth considering that their team was set to face Missouri, the hottest team in the ECHL with a depleted roster, thanks in part to the ECHL giving three players a combined twelve games off resulting from a brawl in Rapid City last weekend, one of whom was goalie Kevin Carr.
Oiler Scott Macauley battles Rush’s Kale Kerbashian.
RAPID CITY, SD—Seasoned hockey fans know that one of the more alluring aspects of the sport is that fighting is allowed. All the other sports incur an automatic ejection if fisticuffs occur, while hockey only garners a five minute cool-down in a center ice suite right on the glass with all the liquid refreshment you can drink.
Oh, it’s against the rules to be sure and doing too much of it can result in an early exit plus fines and suspensions. Banning it has been discussed, both officially and unofficially but it is widely accepted that despite all that fighting will stay as a part of the game for the foreseeable future.