Wranglers aren’t tired of winning

Nick Christensen

Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

By the time the Las Vegas Wranglers' bus had arrived at the team's hotel in Anchorage, Alaska at 11 p.m. local time Wednesday, the ECHL's road warriors had been traveling for 20 consecutive hours.

"It's not too bad," Wranglers assistant coach Drew Schoneck said. "I know the guys are a bit tired. We had a day off today, a light skate to get their legs underneath them. The guys are a little weary, and once we get out there and warmed up and ready to go, being tired doesn't play a whole lot into the games."

So forgive the Wranglers if their goal for this weekend's two games at Alaska is a split.

Having traveled 9,482 miles the past 11 days, the Wranglers have done quite well for themselves -- so far. Las Vegas won four of its six games on its recent Gulf Coast swing, losing twice to the Florida Everblades. The team that was near the bottom of the Western Division when it left Las Vegas could conceivably wind up in first place by the end of the weekend.

"We've played real well on this trip," Schoneck said. "We did beat some real good teams, and we deserved to win the last game if it weren't for a bad bounce off a lineman's skate. We're very happy but our job's not done. We have two more this weekend, and we're looking for a split up here too."

That bad bounce left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Wranglers, left with plenty of time to dwell on Tuesday's 5-4 loss at Florida while traveling from one end of North America to the other.

"It should have been a tie or we should have won," forward Adam Huxley said. "It's bad officiating and the linesman wasn't where he was supposed to be. We've got to forget about that. We've got to put that one in the past."

The loss was the 10th consecutive one-goal game for the Wranglers, dating to their 5-2 win Nov. 12 against expansion Victoria. Fourteen of Las Vegas' 17 games this year have been single-digit victories.

"One goal games are better than winning 10-0," Huxley said. "It just means that you're working that much harder. Nobody ever said it doesn't matter if it's by 10 or by one. We'll continue to get one-goal wins if it gets us two points."

Schoneck said that the battles the team is going through right now will be a benefit come playoff time.

"It's a good thing in the long run, if you make the playoffs; playoff games are always tight-checking close games," he said. "If we play that style of hockey, playoff brand hockey, much like the Calgary Flames did in the NHL last year, when we get to the playoffs we'll play that style of tight-checking hardworking game. We're doing what it takes to win games, and right now we're finding a way to win one goal games."

Huxley also cited the Flames, the Wranglers' parent club, in describing the way the team has taken this stretch.

"The Calgary Flames built a team that didn't do anything pretty, and that's how our team is right now," he said. "We're going to keep fighting, and once we put on the skates who cares how much we've traveled? Who cares how much fatigue's settled in? Getting two points, that's the most important things. Those other teams weren't our division rivals -- these are our division rivals. These games really matter at the end of the year."