LAS VEGAS, Nev- Coming off of their exciting overtime win versus Bakersfield the previous Saturday, on October 25 Las Vegas hosted the Utah Grizzlies. The game marked the third of a five-game homestand at the Orleans Arena. After the highs of the previous win, the 3-0 drubbing by the Grizzlies stung Wranglers faithful even worse.
While the 3-0 final score is bad, it does not nearly tell the entire story. Throughout the entire game, Las Vegas enjoyed a good lead on shot totals, eventually winning that statistic 32-23. Utah scored their first tally of the evening on Mitch Wahl’s two-man advantage shot from former Victoria all-star Ryan Turek at only 3:43 of the first period. The second Utah goal came at 19:11 of the same period, on a Jeff LoVecchio shot from Justin Dowling.
The third goal of the evening, officially credited to Wahl, unassisted, was unquestionably the most interesting goal of the infant Wranglers season. Utah’s Wahl raced into the Wranglers’ zone behind goalie Joe Fallon and came out with the puck on the far side of the net. Wahl then tried an across-the-crease pass to forward Chris Donovan, but before the pass could safely cross the Wranglers crease, the puck went off of a Wranglers defenseman’s skate and between Fallons pads.
This turned out to be the last goal of the evening and the teams skated to a fairly uneventful finish to the game.
A good note for Wranglers fans and fans of arguably the most famous part of professional ice hockey were the two fights in the final frame. After spending most of the third period trying to get Wahl to throw down, Wranglers defenseman Jeff May finally found a dancing partner in Utah’s Turek. It started as May drove in with the puck toward the Utah net and goaltender Andrew Engelage, who made the save easily. After this, May started whacking at the puck lodged under Engelage’s pads as referee Nick Krebsbach’s whistle had not blown yet. Turek took offense to this and jumped on top of May, who immediately stood up to face Turek, dropped the gloves and had a pretty decent scrap, before the linesman broke them up. Six minutes further into the third period, Wrangler Ryan Weston dropped the gloves with 6-foot 6 Utah captain Nick Tuzzolino.
It wasn’t much of a scrap as the two combatants wrestled to the ice pretty quickly. Both Weston and Tuzzolino were given double-minors for their efforts.
In a game that should have been a great rebound from the 3-0 drubbing by Utah the previous Tuesday, Las Vegas blew a 3-1 lead at the beginning of the third period to finish on the losing side of a 5-3 final.
The game, Thursday night, was against the ECHL expansion Colorado Eagles. An exciting affair definitely saw some of the best that the Wranglers have to offer, until around the 10:24 mark of the third period.
Starting the scoring off at 7:37 of the first period, Adam Miller batted the puck out of the air on a high pass through the crease from Eric Lampe and Judd Blackwater on a power play. Later in the first period, at 10:54, Lampe was able to put a well placed shot past Colorado goalie Kyle Jones to end the first frame at a comfortable 2-0 Wranglers lead. The second period saw Colorado start to get back into the game on Riley Nelson’s shot past Wranglers keeper Joe Fallon at 18:20 of the frame.
The final period started off well for the home club as Ryan Weston notched his first goal, unassisted, of the season on a breakaway at just 0:51. Shortly after Weston’s goal, it all went downhill for Las Vegas and by the end of the period, Colorado had managed to get another four goals past Fallon, including one power play, one short handed and one empty netter. The last minute or so of the game saw an offensive rush by the Wranglers, buoyed by a 6-5 advantage but they were unable to put anything by Jones in their relentless attack. During the game, all 3,064 Wranglers fans, including a surprising number of Eagles faithful who made the trek from Loveland (Colorado) for the two game series, got to see things that make their Wranglers a force to be reckoned with.
They also witnessed things that will have Wranglers fans biting their nails until the final buzzer, regardless of what the scoreboard says.
The very next night at home against the same Colorado Eagles saw the Wranglers overcome their previous game’s loss in a big way. With a final score of 9-3, the Wranglers definitely made up for the previous two games. Although Colorado got on the board first, on a Akin Aliu goal that snuck past a screen on goalie Joe Fallon, the Wranglers took the lead at 14:04 of the first period and never trailed again. At 13:39 of the same period, Las Vegas tied the game on Eric Lampe’s first goal of the night, a cross by Peter MacArthur across the goal crease. Las Vegas lit the lamp again 43 seconds later in the period, as Robbie Smith, recently returned from the IR, took a tape to tape pass from Channing Boe and put the disc past Colorado goalie Kyle Jones.
Still later in the same period, at 15:28, Lampe light the lamp again, as he received a pass from MacArthur, put a deke on Jones and lifted the puck into the net. In the second period, the Wranglers scoring machine continued.
At just 0:56 of the period, Lampe scored yet again as he deked out Jones again and put the puck high glove side. Judd Blackwater padded Vegas’s lead even more at 6:21 on the power play, taking a shot from between the face off circles, past a screen and high into the Colorado goal. This Blackwater goal convinced Colorado’s coach Chris Stewart to pull Jones in favor of backup Mike Garman. Wrangler Scott Campbell continued the route at 9:33 of the second, again on the power play, after taking a Adam Miller rebound and burying the rubber high over Jones’s shoulder. The final goal of the second period, on a delayed power play, occurred at 15:55 of the frame as Lampe deflected a Judd Blackwater shot from the blue line. The third period started just as the second ended, with Blackwater burying a rebound on a MacArthur shot.
Miller tallied the final goal of the contest at 16:51 of the final period, after Ned Lukacevic went into the Colorado zone, against two Colorado defenders, dekeing off of his skate and shooting wide of the crease. Miller then skated in to collect the puck on the other side of the crease and tipped it in to cap the scoring at 9-3. The win marks a Wranglers squad that is talented at nearly every level. Fallon looked extremely good in the win, at one point stopping a Colorado breakaway by Michael Forney at 12:45 of the third period.
In great news for Wranglers fans, forward Eric Lampe set the Wranglers organization record for most goals in one game and most points in one game, four and six respectively. The four goal performance also propels Lampe to #1 in the entire ECHL in goals scored.
One facet that Wranglers teams in the past have been lacking but was around in the victory was the elusive power play. Coming into the game at a measly 9.10%, good for 17th in the league, got a boost, with the Wranglers going 3/8. The only point of contention in the match was at 4:25 of the second period, when, in a scramble around the Las Vegas net, Wrangler Jeff May cross-checked Eagle Aliu, sending him down to the ice, where he stayed for a full minute, expecting a Wrangler penalty. When referee JM McNulty did not award Colorado a power play for the incident, Aliu took matters into his own hands. Getting up off the ice, Aliu jumped on May’s back, dropping the gloves and trying to fight May. May, for his part, showed great reaction time and turned to defend himself, as the linesmen broke up the proceedings.
Aliu earned himself a double minor for roughing for the incident, while May received a minor for the same offense. Las Vegas also outshot the Eagles by a combined total of 38-23, finally earning the W in a game where they also win the shot count.
With the win, the Wranglers close out their home stand at the Orleans Arena and go out on the road for the next four games, before heading back to Las Vegas on October 8 against Idaho Steelheads. Las Vegas is at Bakersfield October 29, and play at Idaho November 2, 4 and 5.
Former Wrangler Adam Huxley was recently released from his contract with the Idaho Steelheads. He has not resigned with anybody else as of yet.
Goaltender Mitch O’Keefe has been placed onto the 21-day IR due to a bone spur in his arm that requires surgery. Even though O’Keefe has only been placed on the 21-day IR as of yet, expect him to be out of goal for most of the ECHL season, if not the rest of it. In his place, Steven Duvall has been recruited to be the emergency back-up goaltender during home games until O‘Keefe recovers or Coach/GM Ryan Mougenel is able to land another top quality keeper.
Not too long ago, former Wranglers goaltender and current Binghamton Senators keeper Mike McKenna wrote an article for www.ingoalmag.com . The article, entitled “How do the NHL, AHL and ECHL Differ- A Goalie’s Perspective” did that and was very well written. While the entire article mentions differing ways on which the different leagues vary, from pay to affiliation agreements.
However, McKenna’s most interesting argument is about the “thinking” level between the leagues. “If you take a quick glance at skills competition results from the ECHL, you’ll find that some players are just as talented on an individual basis as those in the AHL and NHL.”
He continued, “In the ECHL, there might be one or two viable options available for the opposing forward given their skill set/mental makeup. A top-end AHL player might have two or three options. But an NHL player – whose level of experience and ability to read the play (again think the game) surpasses those in the minors – might be able to create a third or even fourth option.”
McKenna, Mike. Jan. 27, 2010. “How Do the NHL, AHL and ECHL Differ- A Goalie’s Perspective”. www.ingoalmag.com, retrieved Oct. 28, 2011.
Contact Joel.Hoopaugh@prohockeynews.com
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