Technically, both Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and FC Tulsa made history on Saturday afternoon.

Across the prior 14 editions of the USL Championship Playoffs, no team to reach the Final had completed a postseason without conceding a goal.

After Saturday’s shootout epic, both the Hounds and the Scissortails had achieved that feat – and as we all know, being technically correct is the best kind of correct.

That’s unlikely to be much consolation to Tulsa Head Coach Luke Spencer, goalkeeper Tyler Deric – who was barely given a chance on the Hounds’ five shots – and forward Stefan Lukić, whose effort was the only one saved in the deciding shootout.

But it was clear after the game that as frustrating as the outcome had been for the hosts before a club-record sellout of 9,507 fans at ONEOK Field, the performance had measured up to the biggest moment in its history.

“I thought our performance was pretty good,” said Spencer. “Credit to Pittsburgh. They were tough again. They got another shutout, and Dick put on a really good performance, and so they earned it. They deserved it. For us, it’s just disappointing. I’m proud of the group that we have. Very proud of the season that we had. It’s just disappointing to have this result be the end of it.”

• FLYING HIGH: By most measurements, FC Tulsa was the dominant team of this postseason. In addition to holding its opponents scoreless across 450 minutes of action, the Scissortails averaged just 0.53 Expected Goals Against per 90 minutes while doing so. It also led the postseason with 6.78 Expected Goals for a +4.13 Expected Goal Differential, illustrating the advantage it held at both ends of the field across its four postseason games.

• FINE MARGINS: As well as the Scissortails performed on Saturday, however, they simply came up against one of the great defensive performances in USL Championship Playoffs history. Tulsa’s four big chances created were its highest total of the postseason, but each time the Hounds back line and goalkeeper Eric Dick produced a key block or denial to keep the crowd on the edge of its seat. Over the final 75 minutes, Tulsa outshot Pittsburgh 11-2 and held a 1.36xG to 0.16xG advantage but simply couldn’t find the breakthrough.

• CRUEL ENDING: As the game went to a shootout, Tulsa’s regular penalty taker stepped up first and converted, with Taylor Calheira remaining perfect from the spot on the season. After prior postseason heroics, scoring a pair of extra time game-winners, when Lukić’s effort was saved to close the second round, it felt like a hole the hosts were going to struggle to climb out of. So it proved, with the Serbian talisman’s first season for the club ending in agonizing fashion.

It was a down note to end what’s been the best season in Tulsa’s 11-season history. At the same time, what the postseason run has meant to the club – where it welcomed almost 35,000 fans to ONEOK Field, setting club attendance records in each round – stands to be a galvanizing force as the club enters the new year.

“Yeah, that’s been amazing, amazing through the playoff run here,” said Spencer. “You know, this was the vision, right, to have fans, have the community come out, be able to pack the stadium and provide this type of atmosphere. To see it come together like this at the end of the season was amazing.”

If there’s a silver lining to Saturday’s ending, the knowledge the end result didn’t go their way, but the process that brought them to that moment were on point could simply serve to send Tulsa to even greater heights in Spencer’s second year at the helm.

“I don’t believe in being result oriented and setting goals, ‘we have to be back here,’ because what we did this season was take it one game at a time,” said Spencer. “That worked out pretty well for us, so that’s what we’ll do next season as well.”