Frustration mounts for boxed-in Wranglers

Nick Christensen

Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 | 9:35 a.m.

Two weeks ago, the ECHL began cracking down on stick penalties, making calls such as slashing more frequently and for incidents with less severity.

Since then, the Las Vegas Wranglers are 2-6-0, having allowed 12 goals on 39 power plays.

The Wranglers are slowly picking up yet another lesson in a learning season. They slipped to 18-18-4 with a 4-2 loss at Fresno on Sunday night. The loss bumped Las Vegas to six points out of a playoff spot and 15 points out of first place in the ECHL West.

"Our goal tonight was to take less than four minors, and I think we had three minors in the first period," Wranglers goaltender Marc Magliarditi said as the team bussed back to Las Vegas on Sunday night. "That's one way we can help eliminate other teams scoring, is just being more disciplined."

One of those three first-period penalties essentially cost the Wranglers two goals -- Curtis Sheptak scored on the man advantage after Doug Wright was called for tripping, then the Wranglers gave up an empty-net goal with two seconds remaining in the game.

Still, Sunday's loss was nothing compared to what Magliarditi called a "meltdown" Friday at San Diego.

The Gulls scored on five of their 11 power plays, with the game reaching a low point when Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan was ejected in the third period for arguing a spearing call against Jeff Attard.

The ECHL suspended Gulutzan for Saturday's game at Long Beach, which the Wranglers won in a shootout.

Magliarditi, who was in net for Friday's game, was particularly annoyed by the penalties. During this stretch, he's seen his goals-allowed average slowly rise to 2.42, dropping him from fourth-best in the ECHL to 12th.

"It seems like every game I play in it's a one-goal game or I get scored on first and we're chasing," he said. "It's definitely making it tougher on us (goaltenders) -- we know we're going to have to come back every night. Getting down on penalties is definitely a big area we need to work on coming back from the all-star break."

That leaves the Wranglers with plenty of things to work on during this week's all-star break -- in particular, preventing penalties and killing them when they happen.

"We have to do a little bit of both," Drew Schoneck said. "We have to focus on preventing it, and taking advantage of it when we get opportunities. It's a matter of our guys realizing what's going to be called and staying disciplined."

Then there's seeking help from outside the team. For at least nine days, the Wranglers have been in discussions to sign an NHL player. Schoneck again said Sunday the talks are preliminary.

"We're not going release any names; we don't want to get hopes up or anything like that," he said. "We have contacted a certain guy, and we're hoping he'll give us an answer sometime here in the near future."

The Wranglers will return to Fresno this Friday before home games Saturday and next Monday against Victoria.