Wranglers stop Fresno

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004 | 9:58 a.m.

Shorthanded and wary of an upcoming stretch of five games in six nights, the Las Vegas Wranglers kicked off the span with a 3-2 win against the last-place Fresno Falcons.

Wranglers goaltender Marc Magliarditi had 28 saves and was 7:30 from a shutout when Fresno finally solved what had been an excellent Las Vegas defense and got a goal by Blair Clarence.

Magliarditi was well aware that he was closing in on his first shutout of the season until Clarence's goal.

"You think about it a little bit, especially when we got the lead at 3-0. I knew we were in a pretty good position to win," Magliarditi said. "You try to bear down a little bit more and hopefully get a shutout."

But the goose-egg was not to be, and Clarence's goal actually made life easier for Magliarditi. Or so he said.

"It works both ways," he said. "It takes the pressure off a little bit. You just have to go for the win and that's what happened tonight."

Despite another goal and a six-on-four advantage for the last 64 seconds, the Falcons could not force overtime and Las Vegas secured the win. It gave the Wranglers a 32-17-6 record and lifted them to within six points of first-place San Diego in the ECHL Pacific Division. With a two-point lead on third-place Idaho, the Wranglers travel to Long Beach tonight. The busy week concludes Friday at home against San Diego and Saturday at Bakersfield.

Blaine Bablitz, Dave Cousineau and Greg Day scored goals Tuesday night, with Day extending his scoring streak to nine games. Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said the effort was strong, especially considering Las Vegas' already depleted front line was cut even shorter after Jeff Attard left the game in the second period after an injury. He returned in the third period.

"We had some jump. We had a couple days off. We started to tire late, and we were down to six forwards there for a good stretch of the second period," Gulutzan said. "We're just kind of still rolling and playing our systems, and the new lineups adjusted well. We had a few breakdowns, but that's just guys who aren't familiar where they're playing, and who they're playing with."

Gulutzan also eluded to defensive breakdowns in explaining the two Fresno goals.

"We're really short on bodies, and we're just trying to grind out wins right now," he said.

The Wranglers' magic number for clinching a playoff spot is 9. Any combination of victories by the Wranglers or opportunities lost by the Condors will put the Las Vegas expansion franchise in the postseason in April.

Gulutzan said he'd be satisfied with a split through this rough week.

"It starts the five games in six nights, starts us off with two points," Gulutzan said. "Our goal is to get five or six points out of these next 10 points available."