HIDALGO - On a night when three former Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees were returning to Dodge Arena, coach Paul Fixter was expecting more emotion and effort from his team.

Through two periods of what turned out to be a 3-2 shootout loss to the Tulsa Oilers Friday night, the Bees were outshot 36-17. They allowed the Oilers, a team nine games below .500, to dominate play and keep constant pressure on Bees goalie David Lemanowicz.

And the point the Bees (10-24-7) earned by forcing overtime didn’t satisfy Fixter on a night when defensemen Adam Blanchette, Mike Looby and goalie Jeff Van Nynatten returned to Dodge Arena.

“I am so disappointed, so disgusted, so pissed off right now. I really am,” Fixter said, talking about the team’s effort. “It was a joke. Did we show any effort tonight?"

Maybe in the third, coach.

“What about the first two?” Fixter asked. “It was not acceptable. I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed for myself and the organization. That was a joke of an effort.”

Even Lemanowicz, who made 52 saves wasn’t safe from Fixter.

Though Lemanowicz was a big reason the Bees were able to earn one point, he struggled in the shootout. He faced five shots and saved only one, stopping Paul Kelly on Tulsa’s fifth attempt.

“He was good for three periods,” Fixter said bluntly, who then quickly turned back to the shootout. “In the shootout, he wasn’t very good. I mean, four goals in the exact same spot.”

His counterpart, Van Nynatten, made 28 saves. His biggest, however, doesn’t count in that total, as his stop of Josh Bonar ended the shootout and gave the Oilers (14-23-3) their fourth consecutive win.

Another former Bee, Blanchette, didn’t hide how much he enjoyed seeing Bonar’s final shootout attempt stopped by Van Nynatten.

“It was great, it was like either me or Looby scoring a goal out there,” Blanchette said. “That’s the kind of stop you want to see a game finish on. It was great."

The winning streak the save extended, not anything about beating his former team, seemed to be the most important thing to Van Nynatten.

“It’s good, because now I’m on a team that won four in a row,” Van Nynatten said. “That’s what I’m most concerned about and, put that behind me. I thought both teams played well.”

Fixter, obviously, disagreed, saying he expected more out of his team.

“Especially with the importance of the game,” Fixter said. “Especially when you’re playing against some of your old teammates to come out with that piss-poor effort is… there’s no explanation for it.”

Despite that effort, the Bees managed to tie the game at the 13:06 mark of the third when defenseman Bernie Chmiel’s slap shot from just inside the blueline tied the game at two.

It was Chmiel’s second goal of the night in his first home game since getting traded for Van Nynatten.

“We battled back there, and things didn’t go our way in the shootout,” Chmiel said. “But, you know, we’ve got to come back and get two points (tonight) against a good Rocky Mountain team.”

ICING: The Corpus Christi Rayz beat the Rocky Mountain Rage 4-3, pushing their lead over the Bees to 10 points.

Brian Sandalow covers the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436.