Two assists help save Day in Wranglers’ win

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003 | 10:27 a.m.

Greg Day has always been the lucky type.

He won $1,000 this year when he peeled the lucky sticker off a french fry box. He's the young guy who got the quick promotion in his rookie year from Double-A to Triple-A.

And, he's the guy who just "knows" where to hit the puck to set up his teammate for an assist.

Day logged two assists Tuesday, as the Wranglers defeated the San Diego Gulls 3-2 in overtime. The Wranglers improved to a Western Conference-best 4-1-1 on the year in front of an announced crowd of 3,195.

Day leads the ECHL in assists and points. The Wranglers have scored 20 goals this year, and Day has been involved with 13 of them.

"I knew he was going to have good numbers," Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. "But I don't know if I expected this."

To say Day's play has been surprising might be an understatement. Last season with the ECHL's Peoria, he logged 15 assists and 27 points in 31 games. At Triple-A Worcester, he has seven assists and 13 points in 25 games.

Six games into this season, Day has 10 assists and 13 points.

"I trained every day," in the offseason, Day said. "I just tried to get myself ready for the game, maybe get an extra step on people."

And that training meant work on biometrics, doing foot exercises to help speed up his game.

"I was a real late bloomer, I've always beem smaller than everyone," Day said. "Speed's always kind of been my strength."

Opposing teams are starting to pick up on it. Gulls defensemen Sylvain Deschateletes and Mike Garrow tried to stick with Day through the game.

Gulutzan said that as the ECHL schedule gets more repetitive, defenses will start to pick up Day's skill and improvement.

"We're only playing everybody once," Gulutzan said. "If he turns some heads, he'll get some extra attention, and rightfully so."

Day, for his part, thinks his teammates will be able to pick up any slack left by tighter defense around his play.

"That's the best thing about our game," Day said. "They emphasize on one line, and another can pick it up. Everyone's a threat."

And in the meantime, Day said he will try to enjoy his success while the Wranglers play out their eight-game homestand.

"This is a big home stretch," Day said. "We'd like to pull apart from the rest of the division."

archive