Jacobsen and the Brahmas win 5-4 nail biter in Tulsa

Jake gets a hat trick and Craig Minard has four assists on the night

The Texas Brahmas maintained their lead in the Southeast Division with a win tonight over the Tulsa Oilers at the BOK Center. Grant Jacobsen scored a hat trick and Craig Minard Had four assists in the win. The Brahmas' record improves to 21-9-3 and their road record improves to 9-6-2 with their fifth straight travelling win.

The Brahmas took a four point lead in the Southeast Division after the Rio Grande Killer Bees defeated the Laredo Bucks, 6-3. At 45 points, they are only two points behind the Southern Conference leading Odessa Jackalopes and four points behind the league leading Colorado Eagles.

The Brahmas got to work right away with a powerplay goal at the 1:34 mark of the first period. Craig Minard fed the puck to Jordan Cameron who drew two Oilers defenders then passed the puck to Grant Jacobsen who took a shot and scored on Kevin St. Pierre.

Jacobsen scored again at 12:29 mark. After taking a long lead pass from Craig Minard, Jacobsen was able to break away from about 10 feet off the blue line and attack the net unopposed, beating St. Pierre once again.

The Oilers managed to get on the scoreboard on a powerplay of their own at the 16:22 mark. Their score came just 12 seconds into the man-advantage when Mike Mullen scored on David Cacciola after receiving a feed from Kevin Hanson and Bobby Reed.

The Brahmas outshot the Oilers 12-5 in the period this season.

The second period started out with limited action but the Oilers were able to tie the game at the 4:58 mark thanks to a heads up play by Mike Mullen. Cody Hamilton let his shot go along the left boards and it was taken by Kevin Hanson who took a shot on goal. Cacciola made the initial save but appeared to lose focus and Mullen was able to get the score on the rebound, his second of the night.

12 seconds after Jason Lawmaster went into the penalty box on a holding call, Scott Sheppard fed the puck to the right point to McLeod who held it until Sheppard got into position and then sent it back to Sheppard who took the shot finding the back of the net.

The Brahmas kept on the attack throughout the period. Scott Sheppard nearly scored on a breakaway during four-on-four play but Kevin St. Pierre was able to make the save. After 40 minutes, the score remained 3-2. The Brahmas outshot the Oilers again in the middle period, this time 11-7.

Interesting note: The Brahmas are 13-0 when leading after two periods.

The third period opened with powerplay goal for Scott Sheppard at the 2:34 mark. The puck was all the way into the Brahmas zone when Cacciola passed it to Craig Minard. Sheppard took the feed from Craig Minard (his third assist of the night) and fired it into the upper left hand corner of the net. David Cacciola was also credited with the assist.

The Oilers weren't ready to give up though and at the 6:24 mark, Kevin Hanson and took a feed from Cody Hamilton who kept the puck along the boards and then got it to Avery Wilson who was able to beat Cacciola. The goal fired up the Oilers players and they continued their attack which led to the tying goal less than a minute later.

Jake Riddle took possession of the puck after a turnover in the neutral zone. Three Oilers charged the net and Bobby Reed tied the game with a rebound off a shot by Mike Mullen, beating Cacciola.

With that, Dan Wildfong sent Brett Jaeger in to relieve Cacciola for the second time in as many starts.

The action continued with several shots taken by both teams and then the Brahmas scored again on the powerplay when Grant Jacobsen tipped in a deflection off a shot by Craig Minard at the 11:40 mark.

Brett Jaeger held off the Oilers for the remainder of the period. Scott Sheppard nearly had a hat trick of his own when he took a shot on an empty net after Kevin St. Pierre was pulled in favor of the sixth attacker in the final minute. The shot went wide. The Oilers had their sixth powerplay of the night at the end of the game but were unable to capitalize and the Brahmas won 5-4.

With only 12:40 in the net and after stopping just 4 shots, Brett Jaeger gets the win and improves to 15-4-3-1. David Cacciola had 11 saves on 15 shots and played 47:20.

The Brahmas outshot the Oilers 27-19 tonight. They were 4 for 8 on the powerplay tonight. Tulsa went 1 for 5. The Brahmas were assessed 10 penalty minutes on five infractions. The Oilers were assessed 16 minutes on eight infractions.

You can view the box score here

The third star went to Tulsa's Mike Mullen. Craig Minard received the second star and the first went to Grant Jacobsen.

The Brahmas will face Oklahoma City tomorrow night at the Ford Center. The game starts at 7:10pm and will be broadcast on Nifty-TV.

Photo Credit: Robert Keith