Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005 | 10:02 a.m.
Not long ago, the talk around the Wranglers clubhouse was that one-goal losses like Tuesday's were character-builders, helping prepare the team for grind-it-out postseason play.
Now that the playoffs are all but out of the question, they are nothing more than a source of frustration as the Wranglers are left with nothing to show for one-goal games aside from knowing that they keep outshooting their opponents, which means they keep blowing opportunities for wins.
Tuesday it was the Long Beach Ice Dogs taking a 2-1 overtime win at the Orleans Arena, despite being outshot 37-25 by Las Vegas. The first of those goals, in the second period by Joe Cardarelli, bounced off Wranglers goalie Sebastian Centomo's shoulder before sliding behind his back and into the net, and the game-winner was simply a good shot by the Ice Dogs' Marco Rosa in the midst of a charge by the Long Beach offense.
"It's the story of our year, the story of us lately," Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We outshot our opponent probably by a pretty good margin the last six to eight games, and we don't have much to show for it."
The Wranglers scored early, after Dan Tudin redirected Chris Stanley's pass by Long Beach goaltender Olivier Michaud. But despite outshooting Long Beach in the game, the Wranglers could hardly muster a shot in the two man advantages they had over a span of eight minutes in the first period.
Gulutzan said Long Beach's winning ways have helped it mentally for games like this.
"We haven't gotten any key goals at key times," he said. "When a team like Long Beach gets outshot, they're still winning. Until we get that mentality, we'll have to keep working through it. We deserve some better chances."
Defenseman Mike McBain, playing his first game after more than three weeks on the injured list, said this team's youth contrasts to the ability of more veteran players last year to get the puck in the net.
"We might as well lose by five," McBain said of Tuesday's game. "It's all the same when you lose. We've got to find a way to get on the other side."
Gulutzan echoed another common complaint this season afterwards, saying that traffic in front of the net has been lacking for his team.
"I think one thing we need to do a little better is get to the net when shots are being taken," he said. "When they're all in the perimeter there's nobody in the crease, you aren't going to score."
The Wranglers fell to 20-19-5 on the year with the loss, and Long Beach improved its first-place record to 30-13-4. More importantly, Las Vegas is now 10 points behind fourth-place Fresno, with only four teams from the ECHL West qualifying for those playoffs for which these losses were supposedly preparing the Wranglers.
McBain said he thinks there's still time for his team to mount a charge.
"I don't think so, it's never too late," he said. "We have to build a sense of urgency here, we've got to start winning games, like Long Beach. We're getting outplayed by some teams at the same level, but they're winning games and we're losing games."
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