Wranglers give Idaho cold shoulder

By Rob Miech

Friday, April 4, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The front office of the Idaho Steelheads tried to play as tough as its ECHL hockey team a year ago, but it capitulated when Las Vegas Wranglers owner Charles Davenport opened his wallet.

Nothing soothes a savage foe like a few bucks.

“We paid them money to preserve a home-ice advantage that we had earned,” Wranglers president Billy Johnson said. “They were intractable in working with us on anything, so we threw money at the problem.”

The Wranglers tallied 100 points for a league-record third consecutive season, and they again own home-ice advantage throughout the National Conference playoffs that start next week.

Enmity with conference rivals Alaska and Idaho, however, promises that potential postseason showdowns with either will produce friction that could melt the ice.

A round-robin tournament featuring the owners, executives, equipment managers and even mascots of those three franchises might best settle some scores. Maybe a wrestling-style cage match? For kicks, electrify the thing.

“Teams like Bakersfield, Stockton and Fresno work with us, and we work with them,” Johnson said. “With our biggest rivals, it carries over from the ice to the front office.”

Yes, he confirmed, that’s Alaska and Idaho.

In the past four seasons, including last year, the Steelheads have twice defeated Las Vegas in the playoffs en route to Kelly Cup championships. The Aces went through the Wranglers for a title in 2006. Fisticuffs are common between the teams.

A year ago Johnson had the dual task of shifting playoff dates, because the Orleans Arena had been booked for other events, while retaining home-ice advantage for the Wranglers.

In the first round, Phoenix was agreeable. The Roadrunners hosted the first two games, with the next four scheduled for Las Vegas. The Wranglers swept the series in four games.

“It might be funky,” Johnson said, “but some teams work with us because some day they’ll be in the same boat.”

Then came Idaho. Steelheads brass had been difficult on scheduling matters in the past, so Johnson prepared for a tangle.

To make it work, the first two games had to be played in Idaho. So Las Vegas would retain its home-ice advantage, the third, fourth and, if necessary, fifth and seventh games were set for the Orleans.

That meant the Steelheads would not get the box-office benefit of a Friday or Saturday night home game.

Phone lines burned between Johnson in Las Vegas and Idaho Sports Properties President Eric Trapp in Boise.

“It was just issues with different buildings,” Trapp said. “We came to an agreement.”

The ECHL releases a grid, a period of time for teams to complete a playoff series, and doesn’t like to intervene in squabbles. Apparently, Trapp tried to use that grid to snatch home-ice advantage for the Steelheads.

“If someone like Idaho wants to get a competitive advantage, it’ll point to that grid as an ironclad law,” Johnson said. “Idaho held onto that as gospel. Funny, that gospel went away once we threw money at the problem.”

As it turned out, Idaho, which defeated Las Vegas in six games, didn’t need the home-ice advantage.

Neither Johnson nor Davenport, the Wranglers’ San Diego-based owner, would reveal how much it took to satisfy Idaho.

“There’s a perfect world, how we’d like to do things,” Davenport said. “Then there’s reality. Everything’s a negotiation. Yeah, I wish it worked better.”

Trapp, who questioned Johnson’s motives, didn’t want to discuss the financial agreement.

“No comment,” Trapp said. “I don’t know why he’d bring up stuff between teams and the league.”

When pressed about any friction between the two franchises, Trapp said he doesn’t have any issues and the two clubs always try to work out their problems.

“It was total gamesmanship,” Johnson said. “We called them on it, and they had no place to go. It’s not profitable for us, but that’s not the point. The point was to keep what the guys in the uniforms earned on the ice.”

Over the next month or two, not much is going on at the Orleans. Playoff conflicts for the Wranglers should be minimal. Johnson now knows how to do some forechecking of his own.

“Some teams have told us how they want to be dealt with in the future,” he said. “By God, that’s how we’ll deal with them.”