MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com-TULSA, Okla. - The Colorado Eagles defeated the Tulsa Oilers, 7-6, as two of the CHL's top offenses (the teams entered the game tied for second with 69 goals apiece) squared off for the Northern Conference's top spot. With the win, Colorado moves into a tie with 25 points, despite having two games in hand. The thirteen combined goals matched the second-most all time in the Eagles' history.

In an explosive first period, Colorado and Tulsa combined for five goals and several more quality scoring chances. It was the Oilers who struck first with a power-play goal at 5:31 when Rick Kozak's partial shot from the slot fluttered into the net. On the play, Aaron Davis found Kozak with a pass from the right side of the net where an Eagles' defender was able to tie up his stick midway through the shot, making the puck act like a knuckleball past Andrew Penner's glove.

Colorado tied it at 1 with a power-play marker of their own at 9:13 when Brett Lutes deflected an Aaron Schneekloth point shot past Kevin Armstrong. But just nine seconds later -- right off the ensuing faceoff -- Tulsa re-took the lead when Derek Merlini sent a pass from the left circle in his own zone to Aaron Davis on a breakaway into the Eagles' end. Davis beat Penner 5-hole with a nifty backhand move.ADVERTISEMENT

But the Eagles were able to knot the game up again at 16:12, just after their second power play had expired, when Felipe Larranaga sent a pass diagonally through the zone to Kevin Ulanski below the right circle. And under a minute and a half later, Ed McGrane sent a slap-pass from the slot to Ryan McLeod for a 3-2 lead on Colorado's second power-play goal of the game.

Tulsa tied the game at 3 just over three minutes into the second period with a shorthanded blast from Merlini from the left circle. The tally came when the Eagles just missed a scoring chance on the power play and the Oilers took the puck the other way on a 2-on-1 rush. But the Eagles' high-flying offense followed that up by chipping in another three goals in the period to take a 6-3 lead into the third.

The first came at 5:25 when Ryan Tobler took the puck out of the right corner and beat Armstrong with a shot along the ice. Then at 13:55, the red hot Jim Jackson got the team's third power-play goal of the game -- and his first as an Eagle -- when he took a pass from Ulanski, skated into the left circle and snapped a shot inside the far post to make it 5-3. Tobler then notched his second goal of the stanza with another low shot past the Tulsa netminder at 18:02, this one from the top of the right circle.

Tulsa turned the tables in the final frame with a 3-1 goal advantage as Marty Magers began the period in net for the home team; it marked the second game in a row -- and the third in four -- that the Eagles have chased the opponent's starting goalie. Michel Beausoleil got the first of Tulsa's trio when he avoided a Jackson check in the right circle, recollected the puck and beat Penner, just over two minutes in.

Just over six minutes later, Riley Nelson got the game-winner for Colorado with a top-shelf shot from just inside the left faceoff circle after Tobler chipped the puck into the offensive zone along the left wing boards. The Oilers, though, kept chipping away at the score, and at 12:34, Dan Riedel poked home a loose puck from the doorstep to make it 7-5.

And about three and a half minutes after that, Tulsa made it really interesting when an extended shift in the offensive zone culminated in a shot from the left point making its way through six bodies in front of Penner and into the net; Jim Henkemeyer was credited with the goal.

The Eagles have won all three games to start their seven-game road trip -- and four in a row overall -- and will take on the Mississippi RiverKings Friday night.

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