Closing ice

Oilers end season just short of playoffs

The Tulsa Oilers closed out the regular season on a five-game winning streak, including an exciting 2-1 overtime victory over the Wichita Thunder in the finale in front of 10,480 at the BOK Center on April 9, but it wasn’t enough to get them into the playoffs.

They had been eliminated from contention the night before when the Quad City Mallards beat the Cincinnati Cyclones to secure the eighth and final Western Conference spot.

So despite Phil Brewer’s team-leading 26th goal of the season, off a pass from Brian Nugent during a 2-on-0 breakaway at 2:26 of OT, the Oilers left the arena disappointed.

“Our guys battled here, I won’t take nothing away from how they competed,” said Oilers coach Jason Christie. “It’s tough, five straight just wasn’t enough and now you look back at those odd games you don’t win. Shoulda, woulda, coulda—it will drive you crazy. That’s why every game is so important.”

Back on Feb. 21, after sweeping a two-game set with defending champion Allen, the Oilers owned a 28-18-3-2 record, sitting fifth in the Western Conference, but went 4-12-0-0 over the next 16 contests, including separate losing streaks of seven and five games, to fall to ninth. 

“March was the biggest one, it just felt like we couldn’t catch a breath,” Christie said of the Oilers recent woes. “We were on the road and trying to win games, and it was like we were just treading water. You’d outwork a team and outplay a team and it just wasn’t happening for us. It was a tough stretch.”

During that time, Tulsa had several key players recalled to the higher-level AHL, including two of its top three scorers, Dan DeSalvo and Emerson Clark, as well as top goaltender Jussi Olkinuora.

They got Olkinuora back for the final six games, but DeSalvo and Clark never returned and the Oilers finished their second season in the ECHL (after it absorbed the old Central Hockey League), and first as an affiliate of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets and AHL’s Manitoba Moose, one win short of a post-season berth.

“For sure, with affiliation, you don’t have the same guys around all year,” said Oilers captain Nathan Lutz, who completed his third season in Tulsa. “Some teams in the last month have been getting a bunch of players back, so you don’t really know what you’ve got through the whole season, so that’s the difference from last year or the year before where you have the same guys the whole year and you can really bank on those guys when it comes down the stretch. It’s a double-edged sword with the affiliation and we kind of got the raw end of the deal there.”

Christie acknowledged the impact of losing stars like DeSalvo, who was named team MVP, and Clark, but felt the Oilers still should have been able to overcome it.

“That’s my part, to have guys able to step in when guys are called up,” Christie said. “That’s the biggest thing in putting a team together, having that layer. It just felt like we were playing catch-up, and it just wasn’t happening for us. It was a tough little stretch there, and those are key players. I won’t take that away from them, what they meant to our club, but I think overall, we could have done a better job.”

The season finale ended up being the last one ever for Lutz, 38, who retired from hockey after 15 professional seasons. 

Along the way, he played a total of 907 pro games for 17 different teams in seven different leagues, and won two championships, the last in 2006-07 as captain of the United Hockey League’s Rockford Ice Hogs. The club honored him before the game for his service, and for being one of just two Oilers (along with Adam Pleskach) to play in all 72 games this year. 

“I’m the oldest guy in the league by quite a few years, I’ve had a great run,” said Lutz, who compiled 107 goals, 409 points and 1,515 penalty minutes over his career. “It’s time. The body, I pushed it to the limit. I consider myself fortunate. I’ve never had a surgery, I’ve never had a broken bone. I’ve had a lot of stitches and stuff like that, but I’ve been very fortunate with the whole thing.

“It was a special night, it was a good win, and that’s a good way to finish.”

For more form John, read his story on the Roughnecks opening night.