No frustration in season finishing early

Tuesday, May 9, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.

The third-best season in the 18-year existence of a hockey league normally portends success in the playoffs.

Unless the Las Vegas Wranglers are the subject.

The Wranglers went 53-13-6 for 112 points. Alaska finished with one more point than Las Vegas. The Aces ended the Wranglers' season early last Wednesday in triple-overtime at Anchorage for a 4-2 series win in the Western Division finals.

Curiously, the Wranglers started the postseason with a triple-overtime defeat to Idaho at the Orleans Arena.

Glen Gulutzan, the only coach and general manager in the three-year history of the Wranglers, talked over the weekend about being proud of his players' effort. He said the playoffs were not frustrating.

"Just disappointing," Gulutzan said. "Frustration happens when you're not doing what you hoped you could do. In our case, we were battling. It just never happened.

"We played hard. We couldn't score. We were playing a good hockey team, and that's the way it kind of went. But I was not frustrated. I feel bad for my players because they worked as hard as they could."

Wranglers owner Charles Davenport, who in March extended Gulutzan's contract through 2008, showed up at the Orleans during the Alaska series.

At that time, Davenport said Gulutzan had put the Wranglers on the map and that he has the ability to bring a Kelly Cup Championship to Las Vegas.

Gulutzan called Davenport a "great hockey fan."

"He knows the game," Gulutzan said. "He's been around it for seven or eight years. He wanted to come and watch, and he was pumped for us to win. Honestly, I couldn't have a better owner. He lets you do what you do, and he's always in your corner."

With the season ended, Gulutzan began preparing for 2006-07. His first order of business is to lock up defenseman and captain Mike McBain for next season.

McBain, 29, played in the NHL for Tampa Bay in 1997-98 and 1998-99. He is content in Las Vegas, having played for the Wranglers since the inception of the franchise.

"Yeah, he'll be back," Gulutzan said. "Mike knows he's welcome here as long as he wants to play. Mike's definitely a backbone for us here, no question about it."

Since they can be terminated at any point, long-term contracts are not common in the ECHL.

Gulutzan expects the core of the 2005-06 Wranglers will be back next season, but he plans to scout other talent this off-season.

But in July, he'll take his wife, Nicole, and their three young children to the cabin he bought for the family on a lake in northern Saskatchewan.

He'll bring a computer, and the cell phone will never be far from him.

"That's where I traded for Todd Alexander last summer," Gulutzan said.

"Sometimes, my wife will get mad at me. It'll be a nice day, and I'm on the phone for a couple of hours. But I'm getting better at getting off it."

The Wranglers' attendance at the Orleans has increased in each of their seasons, from 4,981 (2003-04), to 5,193 ('04-05) to 5,531 ('05-06).