TULSA, Okla. – The top producing line in the ECHL did it once again on Tuesday night, as Alex Dostie contributed a goal and assist, Adam Pleskach chipped in a goal and Stephen Perfetto added a pair of assists in Tulsa’s 4-1 home win over the Toledo Walleye in front of 3,573 fans at the BOK Center.
Toledo leads the best-of-seven ECHL Western Conference Finals series 2-1, after the Walleye claimed the first two games in Toledo last weekend.
The Walleye controlled the game early on, holding a 6-1 shot advantage until the middle of the opening period when the Oilers took over.
Dostie netted his league-leading 12th goal of the post-season 13:09 into the first during a four-on-four situation, on assists from Perfetto and Scott Moldenhauer. Perfetto skated into the zone on the right-wing, before centering a pass to Dostie, who fired a shot past Walleye netminder Pat Nagle to put the Oilers on the board.
After the win, Oilers Head Coach Rob Murray spoke about how dangerous Dostie and Perfetto can be when given open ice.
“Both of those guys, if they get some open space, it’s troublesome for the opposition,” said Murray. “They’re going to make things happen out there and they showed it again tonight.”
The 1-0 lead held for the Oilers through the end of the period, with the Walleye holding a slight shot advantage of 9-7.
Neither team found the net in the middle frame, as the Oilers offense peppered Nagle with 20-shots. The Oilers failed to convert on a power play chance following a scrum behind the Tulsa net mid-way through the second. Toledo’s Bryan Moore received two roughing minor penalties at 9:02, after removing the helmet of Tanner Kaspick and landing a few punches to Kaspick’s head. Kaspick received a single minor for roughing for his part in the fray.
The Oilers increased their lead early in the third, scoring on the power play for the first time in the series. With Toledo’s Kevin Tansey serving a delay of game minor, Perfetto fired a shot from the top of the left circle that was re-directed by Pleskach to make it 2-0. Dostie picked up the secondary assist.
Murray said that Tulsa experimented with four forwards on the power play, an experiment that resulted in the Oilers going one-for-three on the man advantage in the game.
“The guys brought it up to me and they explained to me why yesterday at practice,” Murray said, adding that it wasn’t until game time before he decided to give it a try.
Toledo would make things interesting six-minutes later, with Dylan Sadowy scoring unassisted at 7:26 to cut the lead in half. Sadowy skated into the zone, positioned himself between two defensemen and flung a shot on net that beat Tulsa goalie Devin Williams to make it 2-1.
Tesink added his fourth goal of the playoffs just over 10-minutes later to put the Oilers up again by two. Charlie Sampair grabbed a loose puck behind Nagle’s net, then worked to the right side before finding Tesink, who fired a shot into the top of the net from the low slot, making it 3-1.
Kaspick later added an empty-net goal with one-second remaining to secure the final score.
The two teams return to battle at the BOK Center Friday night in game four. Opening face-off is set for 7:05pm CT.
Contact the Writer: John.Hall@prohockeynews.com
Follow us on Twitter: @ProHockeyNews, @JohnHallPHN
You must be logged in to post a comment.