Thunder slides past Oilers, 5-2

TULSA, OK (Dec. 13) – Jason Salvaggio scored the go-ahead goal late in the second to help Wichita claim a 5-2 win on Saturday night over Tulsa at the BOK Center.

Ostap Safin finished with two goals and an assist while Spencer Dorowicz had three points (1g, 2a). Evan Weninger secured his 4th win of the season, stopping 41 shots.

It didn’t take the Thunder long to get on the board. Dorowicz potted his 8th of the year at 15 seconds of the opening frame. He was trying to feed a pass over to Safin, but it hit the defenseman’s skate and went past Devin Williams.

In the second, the two teams combined for four goals. Josh Wesley brought the teddy bears to the ice at 3:51, tipping home a pass from J.J. Piccinich. At 6:27, Safin scored on the power play for his first of the game to make it 2-1. The Oilers answered at 10:01 with a power play goal from Cam Knight. His shot was initially stopped by Weninger, but it got under his leg and just went over the line. Salvaggio re-gained the lead for the Thunder at 17:33 as he fired home a one-timer from Stefan Fournier to make it 3-2.

Brendan De Jong made it 4-2 at 12:02 of the third as his shot from the blueline got past Williams on the short side. Tulsa pulled Williams with just over two minutes, but Safin scored into an empty net and made it 5-2.

Safin has three points in back-to-back games. Dorowicz has five points in his last three games (1g, 4a). Patrik Parkkonen finished with two assists. Hebig extended his point-streak to three games (1g, 4a).