Wranglers hang on to top of division lead

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The top club in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division, the Las Vegas Wranglers have been able to hold on to their lead following an up-and-down away series that saw the best that the Las Vegas organization has to offer and some heartbreaking defeats. The next night after the exciting 9-3 win over Colorado, the Las Vegas Wranglers traveled to Bakersfield to face the Condors. Many, including the Bakersfield announcers had predicted that the Wranglers schedule, three games in three nights and four games over the span of six days, would catch up to the visiting side. It seems they could not have been more wrong, as the Wranglers skated to a very convincing 4-1 victory over the Condors. Las Vegas started the scoring off at just 1:19 in the first period on a Robbie Smith goal. Smith, streaking into the Bakersfield zone after a Wranglers dump and chase attempt, grabbed the puck before Bakersfield goaltender Bryan Pitton was able to get back to defend his territory and backhanded it into the net. The only Condor goal of the night came a few minutes later in the first period, at 3:36, when, on a delayed Wrangler penalty, Condor Mathew Sisca was able to put one past Wranglers goalie Joe Fallon on an extremely persistent Condor offensive rush. It was not until 11:40 of the second period, however, that Wrangler Judd Blackwater was able to put a deke on a Condor defenseman and lift a shot past Pitton for the eventual game decider. In the third period, Las Vegas was able to pad their lead with an Eric Lampe goal on a two-man advantage.Lampe, on his tenth goal of the season, was able to sneak his shot over a tangle of two Condor defensemen and Pitton, all of whom were on their bellies in the crease. Adam Miller added the last goal of the evening, on a cross-ice pass from Ned Lukacevic to the far side of the Bakersfield goal. Miller was wide open in front of the net, lifted the puck high, glove side, to cap the scoring for the night. With the win, Las Vegas surges ahead of Bakersfield for the lead in the Pacific Division standings. The Wranglers kept the shot totals and score high for their second time, outshooting Bakersfield 39-30, including a 16-6 tally in the second period. A source of displeasure for Condor fans, was the seemingly inordinate number of penalties called on the Bakersfield club by referee J.M. McNulty throughout the night. While Las Vegas enjoyed four 2-man advantages throughout the game, they were only able to capitalize on one. McNulty called Bakersfield for nine infractions, while Las Vegas had seven; the only difference was that most of Bakersfield’s nine penalties happened in concurrence with each other. On November 2, Las Vegas made the trip to Boise, Idaho to begin a three game series against the Steelheads. The series did not go the way Las Vegas would have liked, as they dropped their Wednesday night match 6-2. Idaho opened the scoring at 7:22 of the first period, but Las Vegas came back just a couple of minutes later with a Blackwater power play goal. At 9:26 of the first, MacArthur took a streaking shot at Idaho goaltender, and former Wrangler, Jimmy Spratt, who quickly gave up a rebound.Blackwater then took the rebound and buried it around Spratt’s skate, lengthwise through the crease. It was not until the second period that the Wranglers were able to find the back of the Idaho net again for their final tally of the night. At 12:58 of the period, down 4-1 at this point, MacArthur, on a delayed Idaho penalty, made a cross zone pass to Channing Boe. Spratt blocked Boe’s shot, however the rebound was tipped in by Lampe, glove side. This Lampe goal capped the scoring for Las Vegas, while Idaho scored two more goals to end the game. At the final bell, Las Vegas out-shot Idaho 49-23, including 22-3 in the final frame. Another highlight of the evening was the fighting majors handed out at 5:33 of the second period. Wrangler Robbie Smith and Steelhead Derek LeBlanc got together during a mass of bodies in front of the Idaho goal, coming out of the melee swinging. The fight was more wrestling as neither fighter was able to get their arms free of their sweaters. Both Smith and LeBlanc threw a few punches before the linesmen broke in. The next Friday night, also in Idaho, saw a very mundane game in the beginning turn into an exciting affair by the end. Even though the Wranglers would go on to drop the game 3-2 in overtime, they showed that they learned their lessons from the previous game. Lampe scored a goal at just 4:21 of the first period, after a cross-ice pass from Blackwater. Lampe took the bouncing puck from just in front of Spratt and lifted the rubber over Spratt’s glove side shoulder. Almost five minutes later in the first, at 9:21, Boe took a long shot from the Idaho blue line, which Miller redirected past Spratt. The game was 2-0 in the Wranglers favor at the end of the opening period. However, Idaho notched one goal in both the second and third period, sending the game into the four-on-four overtime period. In the extra period, Spratt made a game-changing save on the Wranglers that ended up sealing the game for Idaho 25 seconds later.Off the Idaho zone face-off, Spratt made a sprawling glove save that potentially could have been the deciding goal. Steelhead Kael Mouillierat took advantage of the momentum and put the puck past Fallon for the win. An additional highlight of the game was defenseman Busto’s first fight as a professional against Idaho’s Chad Nehring. After an offensive rush towards the Wranglers net, Busto took offense to Nehring being part of the pile near Fallon and threw a gloved punch to the back of Nehrings helmet. Nehring then turned around and dropped the gloves towards Busto. A quick exchange between the two as Busto fell to the ice and the linesmen quickly stepped-in. Idaho out-shot Las Vegas 43-32 throughout the game and Fallon got the loss in a fantastic defensive effort. In the third match between the same teams, in Boise, the Wranglers came away with a very convincing 5-2 victory. The win evened the point earnings by each club throughout the three game series at three points apiece. The scoring began in the first period by Idaho on a D. Fredriksson shot past Fallon at 12:25 of the period. However, only 1:18 later in the same period, on a power play advantage for a hook on Busto, Las Vegas evened the score. During the power play, Lukacevic fired a shot from the Idaho blue line, with new Wrangler Adam Huxley redirecting the puck past Spratt and into the net of his old team. Huxley, who played as a Wrangler from 2004-06, signed with the Wranglers earlier in the week, after the Steelheads placed him on waivers.   Idaho pulled ahead yet again at 5:36 of the second frame on an Ian Lowe shot past Fallon, but the Wranglers evened the score at 13:50 of the same period. Blackwater, streaking in stick-side on Spratt, put the puck in the five-hole. Less than a minute later, MacArthur scored the game deciding goal on a wrist shot from near the face-off circle into the net. Nearly four minutes later, Campbell padded the Wranglers lead after Lukacevic, taking a centering opportunity from behind the Idaho net, fed Campbell the puck, which Campbell was easily able to stuff past Spratt and an Idaho defenseman. . Racing in from the far side on an empty Idaho net, Huxley avoided a last minute tackle attempt by Idaho’s Matt Case.   Case dropped to the ice to try to block the inevitable Huxley shot with his body, without success. Huxley padded the Wrangler lead with only 14 seconds remaining in the game, to cap the scoring at five. Las Vegas outshot Idaho 32-22 overall and gave Fallon the win. Contact: comment@prohockeynews.com