Oilers send out a strong message

The air on top of Get Ligaen was getting thinner for the Stavanger Oilers on monday when they lost in Oslo, while Lorenskog could win their match against Stjernen. Just one point was left for the champion between them and the rest of the league. So the direct meeting with Lorenskog today was seen as an indication where the league is headed in the near future.

And right from the start Stavanger showed that they had understood the importance of the game. A mere three minutes into the game Dan Kissel could get Stavanger on the board first. Tony Romano, Lorenskog's top scorer, managed to even the score a few minutes later, but the rest of the period was dominated by the Oilers, who could establish a 3-1 lead through Christian Dahl-Andersen and Get Ligaen top scorer Josh Soares. At the end of the first round Stavanger was holding a 13-9 shot advantage.

Four minutes after the first break Tony Romano set up teammate James Sixsmith for the 2-3, but this could not prevent Stavanger from elevating both the shot advantage and the score until the end of the second period. First Dan Kissel got his second goal in a 5-on-3 powerplay, before Tommy Christiansen could punish the second penalty as well. Shortly after that Kristian Forsberg set the score to a 6-2 for the second intermission.

By then the shot tracker showed a 25-15 advantage in Stavanger's favour, which Lorenskog managed to even over the last period, but they did not achieve another goal. Instead Forsberg added his second goal at the 46:24 mark to give the game its final score of 7-2.

With this important home win the Oilers are now 4 points ahead of Lorenskog in second place. Lorenskog did not loose much of their own lead over the teams in 3^rd and 4^th position as both Frisk Asker (2-3 in overtime in Stjernen) and Sparta Sarpsborg (1-5 in Lillehammer) also lost their games tonight.

Storhamar wins, Valerenga loses

Storhamar, the big surprise of the CHL season, could improve their disappointing record a bit by beating a bottom league team in Manglerud, although it turned out to be some hard work. A first period lead established by Joakim Jensen and Christian Larrivee was equalized by Manglerud at the middle of the last period. Rasmus Ahlholm first got a second period goal and then Bryce Reddick was succesful on a 2-man-advantage at the 52:40 mark.

Three minutes later Jacob Berglund got the Dragons back in the lead. Eirik Skadsdammen finally added an empty net goal to give Storhamar its 4-2 win. Still in 6^th place, they could at least get into a 2-point range of Valerenga Oslo, who were the surprising victim of the last placed team.

The Kongsvinger Knights were certainly celebrating Sebastian Benker tonight. His 2 goals against Valerenga secured a rare win for the Knights. It was only the 5^th win of the season for them and the second one with a shutout. Goalie Ole Morten Furseth stopped 38 shots from Oslo. The first shutout this season for Kongsvinger also came against Oslo with the same score of 2-0, but on the road in Oslo.

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