Wranglers show they can bounce back from a defeat

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006 | 8:30 a.m.

Las Vegas Wranglers coach and general manager Glen Gulutzan did a double-take when asked about his team's recent stretch of resiliency. The ECHL club hasn't lost back-to-back games in 2006.

"Yeah, it is (impressive)," he said. "But when you told me that, I didn't realize it."

Las Vegas last lost consecutive games on Dec. 30 and 31, when it was beaten by Utah at the Orleans Arena before dropping one to the Grizzlies in Utah.

In fact, the Wranglers were defeated in back-to-backers only one other time this season, when they lost three in a row at Alaska in November.

After losing Friday night in Long Beach, Las Vegas finished a recent seven-game road trip at 4-3 by winning Saturday in Bakersfield.

"They take losses pretty hard, and they want to rebound well," Gulutzan said of his players. "That's the sign of a good character team, that they don't lose back-to-back."

The Wranglers (33-8-4, 70 points) trail the Aces (36-6-3, 75) in a blistering race for the lead of the National Conference's Western Division.

Alaska visits the Orleans Arena at 7:05 p.m. tonight in what promises to be an entertaining game.

Seven-game road swings normally tax a team, but the Wranglers recently benefited from a timely schedule.

Not only did the All-Star festivities in Fresno break up the trip, but the team had three days off last week between games at Idaho and Long Beach. Gulutzan said that down time was most beneficial to his defense.

"We were playing with four defensemen for such a long time," he said. "They needed a break."

Gulutzan, players Marc Magliarditi and Marco Peluso, and trainer Mike Hannegan represented Las Vegas at the recent all-star game in Fresno.

But the most popular member of the Wranglers' delegation was the team's big, green, furry mascot, The Duke, whose alter ego is Dave Romleski.

"By far, he was the mascot that was talked about the most," Gulutzan said.

ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna told the Sun in December that the league and the Professional Hockey Players' Association (PHPA) were ironing out an extension to the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and it's close to being completed.

Nearly two weeks ago, the league announced that major points to the new deal had been ratified. All that remained was finalizing some of the contract's language.

The PHPA had contentious negotiations with the ECHL before the current pact, set to expire in June, was inked three years ago.

So McBain has been a regular in the downtown office of Dr. Afshin Azimi, the team's dentist. Texas fans, beware - Azimi earned his degree from the University of Southern California.

Toledo coach Nick Vitucci racked up 265 wins between the posts in 13 ECHL seasons with Carolina, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Hampton Roads, Toledo, Charlotte and Greenville from 1988 to 2001.

Not too road weary