Minding his own net

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2003 | 9:44 a.m.

Trying to stop blazing hockey pucks from crossing the net pales in comparison to taking a head-first dive into Niagara Falls.

Las Vegas Wranglers goalie and Niagara Falls, N.Y., native Marc Magliarditi knows the difference between a challenge and sheer lunacy.

"I heard about it," Magliarditi said of the plunge that 40-year-old Kirk Jones took, and lived to tell about, last Monday. "I don't have too much to say about that, except I'm glad he lived. I guess he lived to tell a story that not many people could tell."

Historians of the natural wonder believe Jones is the first person to survive the feat without using equipment. Since 1901, 10 of the 15 people who have gone over the edge in a barrel, or other device, lived through the ordeal.

Magliarditi, 27, grew up a 10-minute bike ride from the Falls, only leaving to begin his hockey career at Western Michigan University.

"You'd always hear the stories and see the documentaries," he said. "It was kind of cool. OK, this guy went over in this barrel, and they had the whole thing on video. I heard a bunch about it when I was growing up.

"You take it for granted, when it's in your own back yard. I was able to see it whenever I wanted to ... but there isn't much to say. He needs to be checked out, I think."

Magliarditi quickly acknowledges which act is crazier.

"I'd play hockey (goaltender) any day of the week before I tried anything like that," he said. "That's an easy one."

Known as "Mags" to all of his teammates and Glen Gulutzan, the Wranglers' coach and general manager, the way Magliarditi makes quick and easy decisions translates into a simplicity between the pipes that stones foes.

After the weekend, only Magliarditi and fellow ECHL goalies Arturs Irbe of Johnstown and Scott Stirling of Atlantic City had won their first three games.

Irbe leads the group by having yielded only four goals, while Magliarditi has given up six and Stirling has watched seven sail into the back of the net.

Gulutzan will be confident with Magliarditi minding the net tonight at 7:05, when the San Diego Gulls play the Wranglers at the Orleans Arena.

San Diego won the final West Coast Hockey League championship last season, but the Gulls (1-1) trail Pacific Division-leading Las Vegas (3-1-1) in the ECHL's Western Conference.

"They're a tough team," Gulutzan said. "They play a hard-nosed game. Within the last three years, two teams in the old WCHL who were tough to beat were Boise and San Diego."

The Wranglers are 2-1-1 against Boise this season.

"The other measuring stick," Gulutzan said of San Diego. "I think it's going to be a good test for us. It's going to be a more physical game than we've seen in the last two, and I want to see how our guys respond."

Wranglers defenseman Mike McBain expects Magliarditi to be his usual calm and collected self. He previously played with Magliarditi on a U.S. World Juniors team and in Red Deer, of the Western Hockey League.

McBain said Mags, 6-feet-1 and 180 pounds, has never been fancy.

"He just stops the puck," McBain said. "That's all you have to do as a goalie. You got guys like Dominik Hasek, who makes fancy saves all the time. They're great goalies, but all you need a goalie to do back there is get in front of the puck.

"That's what Marc's done."

Magliarditi said McBain "nailed" his style.

"I've always been a technical goalie," he said. "To me, if you're making big flop-around saves, you're out of position. I try to be real technical, always be in position. The simpler and easier my game looks, the better I'm playing."

Playing at home has already proven to be invaluable, too, for someone who once played for five different teams, constantly staying in motels, in one season, 1997-98.

Magliarditi still has a Niagara Falls-based number on his cellphone, but about 20 relatives reside in and around Las Vegas, and he bought a home here this summer.

Magliarditi, his wife, Christine, and young daughter, and all those relatives, have gathered regularly for feasts at the home of his mother, Christine.

"It's nice to be settled, already, when a season starts," he said, "not having to worry about hooking up your phone or cable, or carrying boxes upstairs."

When a call came from Lowell, Mass., where the Calgary Flames' American Hockey League franchise calls home, recently for a goalie, Brent Krahn was put on a jet heading east.

Las Vegas is the equivalent of the Double-A leagues in baseball, and Lowell is roughly the Triple-A level for Calgary.

Even more important, Krahn was drafted by Calgary, as the ninth overall selection, in the 2000 Entry Draft and is still signed to that Flames contract. Krahn lost Saturday night at Providence.

"It's not like (Lowell) needs a goalie and they're going to take a look at who's playing well, unfortunately," Magliarditi said. "There's a business side of it. If a guy has an NHL contract, he's going up whether he's 10-0 or 0-10.

"But I'm glad I'm getting in some games here and playing in front of the (Orleans) crowd, and I'm having a lot of fun right now."