New Wranglers aim to carry on grand playoff tradition

Stephen R. Sylvanie / Special to the Las Vegas Sun

The Las Vegas Wranglers salute their fans after defeating the Stockton Thunder 5-3 for the final regular season home game at the Orleans Arena on Saturday night.

By Steve Silver (contact)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | 9 p.m.

The Las Vegas Wranglers are no strangers to the playoffs.

For the fourth consecutive season, and fifth in six years, Las Vegas will make a trip to the postseason when it kicks off a best-of-seven series against the Bakersfield Condors at the Orleans Arena on Friday night for the first-ever playoff meeting between them.

But aside from the team name on their jerseys, there are few remnants remaining from the Wranglers' march to the Kelly Cup finals last season as Las Vegas (34-31-8) returns just five members from that accomplished 2008 squad.

That lack of playoff experience, however, might not hamper the Wranglers' quest for the Kelly Cup.

In fact, Las Vegas coach and general manager Glen Gulutzan expressed his excitement about working with a young team while speaking to reporters at the Wranglers' media day Wednesday afternoon at the Orleans Arena.

"The scariest thing you can run into is a team of young guys that are hungry and get on a roll," Gulutzan said. "Teams like that are dangerous and that's where I see us… You might be able to catch older, experienced teams not ready to handle you in a seven-game series night after night if the young guys are really jammed up, jumping to play."

Aside from stressing the importance of the Wranglers' youth movement, the buzzword of media day was "defense" since the Condors are fifth in the ECHL with an average of 3.42 goals per game.

Bakersfield (33-31-8) is particularly potent with an early lead as the Condors went 17-3-3 in the regular season when leading after the first period.

"Defense is going to be key," said Wranglers defenseman Jason Dest. "(Bakersfield) has a high powered offense. They score a lot of goals. We know what we have to do."

Dest and the rest of the Wranglers' defensive unit will have to focus on Bakersfield forwards Dave Bonk and Mark Derlago. Bonk and Derlago lead the Condors with 10 points each against the Wranglers this season.

That potent duo of Bonk (82 points) and Derlago (77 points), who rank fifth and sixth respectively in total scoring in the ECHL, have also terrorized the rest of the league.

"We have to limit their opportunities," Gulutzan said. "They've got firepower. Their top forwards are very, very good. They are as good as any forwards in the league. We are going to have to play in their end as much as possible. We can't let them wheel around here freely because they can hurt you."

The Wranglers, who are 5-2-1 against the Condors this season, expect to add some offensive firepower of their own by the middle of this series. Gulutzan said he expects forwards J.D. Watt, Justin Taylor and Mike Hamilton to return from the AHL by Monday in time for Las Vegas' road trip to Bakersfield.

Yet no matter how young the Wranglers are or how many AHL players they have, Las Vegas has to improve its power play to sink a team like the Condors.

The Wranglers' power play has dwelled in the cellar of the league all season with a 12.4 percent success rate. The Condors, by contrast, are fifth in the ECHL at 20.5 percent.

"It's the playoffs – it's a different season – so we get to reset everything to zero," Gulutzan said. "We are going to shoot and be hungry around the net and hope to get this thing going."

Steve Silver can be reached at 948-7822 or steve.silver@lasvegassun.com.