INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – The Kansas City Mavericks lost to the Tulsa Oilers on home ice Saturday night. Their strong third-period play wasn’t enough to recover from a lackluster opening two periods.
Kansas City struggled to control the puck through the first and second periods and Tulsa capitalized on defensive zone turnovers. Shots were 11-4 Tulsa in the first. Danny Moynihan opened the scoring for Tulsa at 16:04 of the first period, assisted by Maxim Golod.
The second period saw Kansas City go down by two around the seven-minute mark when Gregg Burmaster scored on a slick feed from Ian McNulty. Just 38 seconds later, Brodie Reid got the Mavericks on the board with a power-play goal. Lane Scheidl and Rob Bordson registered the assists on Reid’s first goal of the season. Just past the game’s midway point, Ian McNulty made amends for his earlier penalty by expanding the Tulsa lead to 3-1, scoring his first of two lamplighters on the night. Shots were 11-5 Tulsa at the end of the second.
Kansas City rallied and played their best hockey of the game in the final period, putting sustained pressure on Tulsa defenders and netminder Olle Erikson Ek. With just under five minutes left in the game, McNulty scored his second of the night to give Tulsa some insurance and a 4-1 lead. The Oilers would need that insurance marker because the Mavericks would quickly answer back. Phil Marinaccio scored with 3:22 left in regulation, to narrow the score to 4-2. Giorgio Estephan followed that up with a power-play goal two minutes later, assisted by Scheidl and Reid. The Mavs mounted one last push but were unsuccessful.
The Mavericks penalty kill was two-for-two and they scored on two of three power plays.
Kansas City will host the Wichita Thunder at Cable Dahmer Arena tomorrow night, in the first of a four-game set between the teams. The three games in Wichita are part of a seven-game road trip.
Chrystal Shannon covers the Kansas City Mavericks for The Sin Bin. Follow and interact with her on Twitter @SinBinMavs.
