Friday, April 24, 2009 | 4:22 p.m.
Playoff Schedule
- Game 1: Las Vegas at Stockton on Friday, April 24th at 7:30 p.m.
- Game 2: Stockton at Las Vegas on Monday, April 27th at 7:30 p.m.
- Game 3: Las Vegas at Stockton on Thursday, April 30th at 7 p.m.
- Game 4: Las Vegas at Stockton on Saturday, May 2nd at 7:30 p.m.
- Game 5: Stockton at Las Vegas on Monday, May 4th at 7:30 p.m. (if necessary)
- Game 6: Stockton at Las Vegas on Tuesday, May 5th at 7:30 p.m. (if necessary)
- Game 7: Stockton at Las Vegas on Wednesday, May 6th at 7:30 p.m.(if necessary)
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Expanded hockey coverage
The Las Vegas Wranglers are certainly riding an emotional high into Stockton tonight, but silencing the Thunder in the Pacific Division finals might not be such an easy task.
The two squads split their six regular season meetings 3-3 with each team failing to win in the other's arena. Las Vegas fell 7-2 on Jan. 16, 3-2 on Feb. 25 and 3-1 on March 29 in their three previous trips to Stockton Arena.
"You have to win in other people's buildings, that's just the way it is," said Wranglers coach and general manager Glen Gulutzan.
The Wranglers did dominate the Thunder in their most recent meetings, outscoring Stockton 9-3 in the final two regular season games at the Orleans Arena on Apr. 3rd and 4th.
But a scheduling conflict at the Orleans Arena delays the Wranglers' home ice advantage and forces them to start on the road in a 1-1-2-3 series format. Three of the Wranglers first four games of this series will be at the Stockton Arena, which led the ECHL in attendance with an average of 6,218 fans per game.
Fortunately for the Wranglers, the Thunder played on the road in a game 7 at Ontario on Wednesday night, which means both teams had to travel on Thursday for tonight's game.
"This could be a good thing," Gulutzan said. "Although it's a home game for them, they can't sit back and rev up for it. They played Tuesday-Wednesday. We played Tuesday-Wednesday. We're traveling Thursday, they are traveling Thursday."
Players to watch: Stockton center Cory Urquhart leads the Thunder with nine points (6 goals, 3 assists) and center Craig Valette has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) in the playoffs. Thunder forward James Bates is riding a four-game goal streak with five goals in his last four games. For the Wranglers, forward Kelly Czuy has nine points (4 goals, 5 assists) and center Dan Riedel has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists).
Hot start: Stockton is 4-0 when scoring first in the playoffs, while the Wranglers are just 2-2 with the opening tally.
Goalie guessing: Stockton used three goalies against Ontario. Parker Van Buskirk went 3-1 with a 3.48 goals against average and a .886 save percentage. Bryan Pitton went 1-2 with a 5.01 GAA and a .826 save percentage. Andrew Perugini only played 36 minutes, allowing two goals in 21 shots.
Las Vegas appears set with Glenn Fisher minding the net. He was 3-1 against Bakersfield with a 1.51 GAA and a .953 save percentage. John DeCaro was 1-0-2 with a 3.07 GAA and a .913 save percentage.
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