Wranglers come up empty in home opener

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004 | 10:44 a.m.

Excuse the Las Vegas Wranglers if they don't want to see the Long Beach Ice Dogs around for a while.

The Ice Dogs handed the Wranglers their second consecutive defeat Tuesday, as goalie Chris Madden shut out Las Vegas 1-0 in front of an opening-night crowd of 5,156 at the Orleans Arena.

Las Vegas (1-1-1) outshot the Ice Dogs 37-28 but could not get the puck past Madden, who came into Tuesday with a .971 save percentage and a 0.96 goals-against average.

"That's a pretty good number. At home, you want to get over 40," Wranglers center Rejean Stringer said of Las Vegas' shots. "We had some chances. I think I missed two open nets ... we aren't happy."

Las Vegas went into the first intermission behind in shots on goal 14-9, but came back for a 16-11 second period and a 12-3 shots advantage in a furious third-quarter rush.

"We shot many shots, but unless you create offense, create good chances, it doesn't matter if you have 100 shots," losing goaltender Marc Magliarditi said. "We didn't get the breaks, and their goaltender played well."

Magliarditi was pulled in the final minute, but even an empty net couldn't help the Wranglers get a tying goal. Long Beach was called for icing shortly after Magliarditi left the game, but the Wranglers lost a key faceoff in the attacking zone, as Ice Dogs center Evan Cheverie not only won the faceoff but knocked the puck deep into Wranglers territory.

"That was one of the big plays. They get it, they get traffic," Madden said. "As a team we played real well. We did what we had to do. We ran into a good goalie. We scored and we were fortunate to get one."

Fortunate is a fitting word. Ten days after his shootout goal gave Long Beach a 3-2 win against Las Vegas at the Long Beach Arena, Ice Dogs center Marco Rosa happened upon the puck in front of the Wranglers' net to score the game's only goal. That was Rosa's third goal of the year.

"I got lucky, I was at the right spot at the right time," Rosa said. "At times they outplayed us, but Madden played unbelievable. We got one good goal at the right time."

Long Beach center Chris Kenady, who played for Las Vegas last year, said he doesn't expect to see too much more of Rosa this year.

"He's a good player, and maybe he belongs at another level, but the strike has him down here," Kenady said. "If he keeps the pace up, I don't think we'll see him down here for too long."

Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan saw the low score as a testament to the team's youth.

"This year, this team can work hard. Last year, they were a little older, there was a little more goal scoring," he said. "It could take awhile for us to get the confidence and step up for them."

Neither team converted on power plays, with Las Vegas going 0-for-5. The Wranglers have not converted any of their past 16 power plays for goals.

Gulutzan credited Long Beach for the improvements it made after finishing last in the ECHL's Western Division, with a 23-44-5 record. Long Beach is now 3-1-0, third place in the eight-team West.

The low-scoring game was only the third one-goal game in Wranglers history, with the team winning one 1-0 contest and losing another last year. The consensus in the Las Vegas clubhouse Tuesday was that low-scoring games are a trend to get used to this year.

"Hopefully it's low for them and high for us," Wranglers defenseman Deryk Engelland said. "The defense is especially solid ... it should keep the points down."