Who’s minding the net this time?

Thursday, March 2, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

Wranglers coach and general manager Glen Gulutzan has been forced to add and subtract emergency goalies almost daily since rookie Mike McKenna was picked up by Norfolk of the American Hockey League in late January.

Emergency netminders cannot practice with their teams. They sit on the bench during games, but they can only play if the starter (Marc Magliarditi) is injured during a game.

Mike Katz, who works for Verizon Wireless during the day, has been Gulutzan's semiregular emergency goalie in Las Vegas. Chris Tate and Brett Leone are other locals on the coach's emergency short list. Tate works at his family's wine distributorship, and Leone attends UNLV.

Gulutzan can find goalies for emergency duty on the road via a database and through other coaches. None of the fill-ins, who make between $50 and $75 a game, has played in a Wranglers game this season.

"Yeah, we take 'em on and off," Gulutzan said.

Gulutzan has a favorite emergency-goaltender story, although he declined to name the player or the team.

"A guy showed up, then came out wearing a blindfold, a nylon ski mask," he said. "He could barely see through it, but he thought it would help him focus on pucks, having to stare through the thing.

"The boys got quite a kick. They'd never seen something like that."

The second season

After missing the ECHL playoffs last season, the Wranglers clinched a spot in the postseason with victories over Idaho on Friday and Saturday at the Orleans Arena.

"It's a big deal, if you asked me six months ago," Gulutzan said. "(Now), it's a formality. I think we all expected it, come Christmas time, that we should be a playoff team."

After a relatively light February, in which the Wranglers played seven of 11 games at home, the team plays eight consecutive away games to start March. The playoffs begin in mid-April.

Slap shots

Gulutzan said that wasn't significant, especially at home. The visitors turn in their lineups first at the Orleans Arena, and Gulutzan usually counters the opponent's first line - checking, finesse, etc. - with a similar lineup.

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