A journey worth making

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005 | 7:39 a.m.

The last part of the Wranglers' grueling eight-game, 12-day road trip last season covered 13,600 miles (all times local).

Dec. 1

6 a.m. -- 2 1/2-hour bus ride from Estero, Fla., to Miami

11 a.m. -- Flight departs Miami for Denver, landing at 4:30 p.m.

6 p.m. -- Flight departs Denver for Anchorage, landing at 10 p.m.

11 p.m. -- Team checks into hotel

The Las Vegas Wranglers didn't head north to Alaska for the foghorn or the cowbells or the Olympic-sized rink or the snow or gloom.

They went for the halibut.

"They do have great seafood," defenseman Mike McBain said, anticipating a trip to the Last Frontier to play the Aces. "That's one thing I do look forward to going up there."

So does Wranglers third-year coach and general manager Glen Gulutzan, who has made an annual trip to Alaska for more than 10 years. He'll eat crab, halibut or lobster, mostly at the Glacier Brewhouse, every day he's in Anchorage.

"Then I probably don't eat it for another six months," said Gulutzan, who made many Alaska trips as a player in the old West Coast Hockey League.

The Wranglers don't go for the salmon. After the Aces score their first goal, one of the many rabid Sullivan Arena fans hurls a frozen salmon onto the ice.

"I think we've seen it every game up there," Las Vegas goalie Marc Magliarditi said of the Alaska hockey tradition. "Fun atmosphere. Rowdy fans. They really get into it."

It's hockey's most unusual road trip, which the Wranglers accomplished Tuesday in a mere five hours of flying time. They play in Anchorage tonight, Thursday and Saturday, then head back this way for a Tuesday game in Fresno.

Tuesday's trip pales in comparison to the Alaska-related itinerary the ECHL forced upon the Wranglers last season.

The team flew between the league's two farthest franchises, in Estero, Fla., and Anchorage. A travel day that started at 6 a.m. in Estero, with a flight from Miami and a transfer in Denver, ended at a hotel in Anchorage at 11 p.m.

"I think we probably could have gone to Europe and it would have been the same distance," McBain said.

"It was the longest trip I have ever been on. I don't think many teams have accomplished something like that."

It was the tail end of one of the oddest travel schedules in sports.

That eight-game, 12-day odyssey started in Lafayette, La., and included games in Estero and Pensacola, Fla., -- a nine-hour bus ride to the panhandle -- on consecutive nights. The Wranglers then hustled back to Estero, to play the Everblades again, before leaving for Alaska.

The Wranglers covered 13,600 miles, spending more than 70 hours traveling during the excursion.

"But we had a great road trip," Gulutzan said of winning five of those eight games. "Yeah, certainly, it wasn't the easiest trip we've been on ... we packed for Florida and packed for Anchorage all in the same trip."

The Aces know what that's like. They average 60,000 travel miles a season.

"It's always a bit of a challenge," McBain said. "You come from a place where it's sunny 95 percent of the time to a place that's cloudy, and dark, 95 percent of the time. It can be gloomy, which is a little hard on the mind."

The weather just comes with the territory, like the ice surface that's 15 feet wider and 10 feet longer than usual. Sullivan is the only Olympic-style rink in the league.

Gulutzan said that helps the skaters, or skill players.

"I have to prepare a little differently," he said. "The game is a little different because there's more room, more time, more space."

Gulutzan's father, Gene, left his home in Manitoba to join his son in Alaska and see Anchorage this week for the first time. Glen Gulutzan said he will coax his wife, Nicole, into making the trip in the next season or two.

He adores the "Northern" feel of the city nestled between the Alaska Range and Knik Arm, the top portion of Cook Inlet.

"It's a really neat city," he said. "It's a great place to watch a game. It's one of those things where I'm glad I went.

"But I don't want to be there forever."

Rob Miech can be reached at 259-4087 or at miech@lasvegassun.com