BOSSIER CITY, La. – The Central Hockey League’s Berry Conference Final is now set. The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, fresh off an overtime win on Friday, closed out their best-of-five series with a 5-4 win Saturday night in front of 2,318 fans at the CenturyTel Center. 
Shawn Limpright scored the eventual game-winner, while Steven Crampton added three assists for the Mudbugs. John DeCaro turned back 21 Oilers’ shots as he improved to 5-1 in the postseason. Both squads struggled on the power play, as they each scored just once in five tries with a man-advantage. Tulsa opened the game displaying a strong focus.
The Oilers dominated possession through the opening minutes, out-shooting the Mudbugs 7-0 before Jeff Kyrzakos placed the Mudbugs’ first shot on goal 9:10 into the game. Just 2:29 later Nick Layton broke the scoreless tie as he took a feed from Justin Aikins in the corner and put it past Tulsa net minder Ian Keserich from the left post for a 1-0 lead. Former NHLer, Bates Battaglia put the Oilers on the board five minutes later on an unassisted goal. Battaglia stole the puck from Simon Mangos in the high slot and rushed in for the score at 16:08 of the opening period. Andy Contois, who had the game four overtime game-winning goal on Friday, put the Mudbugs back on top two minutes later. Contois took a pass from Crampton and split Oilers defenders Derek Eastman and Sean Erickson, scoring on the breakaway at 18:04 making 2-1 heading into the first intermission. Brett Smith and David Rutherford extended Bossier-Shreveport’s lead to 4-1 with goals in the second period. Contois picked up a pass from Crampton that skipped off an Oiler stick in the neutral zone, rushed into the offensive zone and centered a pass to Smith in front of Keserich. Smith then tipped the puck into the top corner of the net above Keserich’s glove for the score at 6:04. With one-second left on a roughing penalty to Eastman, Rutherford beat Keserich for Bossier-Shreveport’s only power play goal of the night. Tulsa battled back in the third period, making things interesting again with a pair of goals just 57 seconds apart.
Five-minutes into the period Evan Kotsopoulos scored to cut the lead to two goals. Standing behind the Bossier-Shreveport net, Marty Standish sent a pass to Kotsopoulos near the left hash. Kotsopolous then lifted the puck into the net above DeCaro’s right shoulder for the score. Michel Beausoleil pulled Tulsa within one at 5:57 when he tapped in a rebound from the top of the crease to the left of DeCaro. Chad Costello and Jack Combs were credited with the assists. Limpright answered back just over three minutes later, knocking in a rebound from just outside the crease of Tulsa goalie Trevor Cann to make the score 5-3. Just 29 seconds into a Travis Clayton holding penalty, Tulsa scored its only power play goal to pull back within one. Costello took a pass from Beausoleil behind the net, and sent the puck in from the right side of DeCaro, making it 5-4 with 4:31 remaining.
Tulsa then gave it one last ditch effort, pulling Cann for an extra attacker with 1:23 left, but only managed one shot on goal in the final four minutes.
Contact the writer at john.hall@prohockeynews.com
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