Monday, Jan. 3, 2005 | 9:24 a.m.
With the Wranglers under .500 for the second time in team history, Las Vegas coach Glen Gulutzan made the point clear in a team meeting last week -- play together, or else.
The message apparently got across.
Three nights after losing to Bakersfield for the third time in four games this season, the Wranglers returned to the Centennial Garden and beat the Condors 5-3 Friday.
Saturday night, the first-place Condors suffered their biggest defeat of the year, when the Wranglers battered Bakersfield 8-2 despite being outshot 58-29.
"I think we played more as a team the last two nights than we have this season," Gulutzan said from the team's bus Saturday night. "We got some timely goals from guys, we started scoring, guys played hard and played for each other. I think that's the biggest difference and I don't think that's cliche."
Scoring that simply wasn't there during the first two months of the season finally materialized, as 14 Wranglers left Bakersfield with at least one point and 10 had multiple points in the two games. In Saturday's outburst, Jeff Attard had the third hat trick in Wranglers history, the first since Darren Partch scored three goals against Fresno on January 31, 2004.
"We came to a point where we were going to go one way or another way," Attard said. "Everyone likes each other on the team; we feel we have a good team, but things haven't been going our way. We talked about it, and we went back to old-time hockey, old-time practices, and it just came together this weekend. We wanted it a lot more. We knew we had to get these two wins to start climbing the ladder in the standings."
What is this old-time hockey that Attard was talking about?
"Just easy hockey," he said. "Dumping it in and hitting hard. Physically we pretty much dominated tonight, we dumped it in, hit them and they were sore."
And by the time the Wranglers had a five-goal lead on Saturday, the Condors apparently grew weary of trying to settle matters with the hockey puck.
In a span of two minutes in the third period, four fights broke out on the ice. First went Las Vegas' Regan Darby and Bakersfield's Paul Rosebush at 4:06. Round 2 involved the Wranglers' Billy Tibbetts and Bakersfield's Todd Alexander -- it was Tibbetts' concussing cross-check of Alexander in November that started this rivalry -- at 4:48, and 28 seconds later, Bakersfield's Brett Lutes hit Las Vegas' Dustin Johner to start the third scrum.
The affair finally ended when Bakersfield goalie Randy Petruk grabbed Las Vegas' Adam Huxley as he mixed it up with Luis Tremblay, prompting Wranglers goaltender Sebastien Centomo to skate to center ice and challenge Petruk for what was the first goalie fight in Wranglers history.
"They've been a chippy team every time we played them," Attard said. "We felt like these guys are the dirtiest team in the league, and once it came down, some of the guys stepped up and kind of gave it to them. It felt good for us."
Las Vegas and Bakersfield combined for 273 penalty minutes last weekend, three weeks after combining for 221 in a two-game set at the Orleans Arena.
Gulutzan said he doesn't see the tensions being cooled at all, even after the weekend's fights.
"Like I've said, it's whatever way they want to play," he said. "We'll do it on the road too, whatever way they want to play, that's fine with us. We had guys that answered the bell and it didn't matter where we were. We did it at home, we'll do it on the road. We're not going into any buildings to get pushed around."
The wins also put the Wranglers right back in the playoff race, nine points behind first-place Long Beach in the ECHL West Division and in a three-way tie for fifth place with the top four teams making the playoffs.
Las Vegas hosts San Diego at the Orleans Arena on Tuesday, kicking off a six-game, two-week homestand.
The Wranglers' next road game is Jan. 15, at Bakersfield, the last time this season they'll travel to the Centennial Garden.
"They'll be tough games every time we play (Bakersfield)," Gulutzan said, "and that's the way we want it. They're a tough team and so are we."
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