Sunday afternoon, the Oklahoma City Blazers and Texas RoadRunners closed out their three-game weekend series, with OKC looking to pick up the weekend sweep. Olivier Charbonneau returned to the net for the Blazers, while the RoadRunners turned to Cailean McDonald once again.
The RoadRunners opened the scoring for the first time against the Blazers, as Texas intercepted a pass in the OKC zone and converted in front of Charbonneau for the 1-0 lead. OKC answered back as Robby Rabroker found William Wallace all alone in front of the net, and Wallace picked up his second goal of the season to tie it at 1-1.
Rabroker picked up his first goal of the season moments later as he, Noah Roitman, and Thomas Srsha connected on a tic-tac-toe passing situation on a rush, and gave OKC the the 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
The Blazers kicked off the 2nd period as Wallace skated into the RoadRunners zone, drawing both defenders into the slot, and found Noah Henslee on the left-wing side for the goal and the 3-1 lead. Texas earned one back with Tim Marsico picking up a pass from across the slot, and making it a 3-2 game. With time ticking down in the period, the Blazers had one last rush into the RoadRunners zone, with Henslee setting up unmarked at the side of the goal. A quick pass from Tucker Lien found Henslee, and Henslee picked up his second of the game to make it 4-2 at the second intermission.
Looking to close things out in the 3rd period, Hunter Dougherty picked up the puck behind the Blazers goal, sending it over to Henslee on the right-wing side. Henslee went nearly coast-to-coast following the puck behind the RoadRunners goal and back in front to snipe the shot past McDonald, picking up the hat trick and extending the OKC lead to 5-2.
In the final minutes of regulation, the Blazers found themselves on the power play. Roitman settled down a pass at the blueline, and sent it down to Artem Korolev. With McDonald losing his stick and having to use a skater’s stick, Korolev found Sam Miller pinching into the slot, and Miller put the final nail in the game, extending the lead to 6-2, and closing out the sweep for the Blazers.
Olivier Charbonneau improved to 2-1-0 on the season with the win, turning away 36 shots. McDonald fell to 0-2-1 with the loss, turning aside 42-of-48 Blazers shots.
With the win, the Blazers jumped into the first place position in the South Division, and currently leads the NA3HL with 21 standings points. The Blazers return to OKC on November 20th as they take on the El Paso Rhinos in their rescheduled series from Halloween! Tickets available at https://okcityhockey.tix.com!
