Stockton storms past Wranglers

By Steve Silver (contact)

Friday, May 1, 2009 | midnight

Las Vegas suffered its most lopsided loss of the postseason as the Stockton Thunder blasted the Wranglers 5-1 Thursday night in front of 4,237 fans at Stockton Arena.

The Wranglers, who are 0-5 on trips to Stockton this season, now trail the Thunder 2-1 in the best-of-seven Pacific Division finals. The two squads will meet one more time at Stockton Arena for Game 4 on Saturday night.

"Getting frustrated is the last thing you want to do," said Las Vegas forward Scott McCulloch, who was held without a shot Thursday. "We just need to regroup and focus on Saturday."

For the first time this series, Stockton scored the opening goal as Garet Hunt backhanded a Ryan Huddy rebound past Las Vegas goalie John DeCaro for a 1-0 lead with 10:20 remaining in the first period.

Stockton struck again early in the second period during a double power play thanks to interference and tripping minors to Mick Lawrence. Craig Valette buried a rebound during the third minute of that four-minute power play for the 2-0 advantage and his fifth tally of the postseason at the 3:36 mark.

Less than nine minutes later Ryan Huddy extended the Thunder's lead to 3-0.

"We definitely came out well in the first period, but they did outplay us in front of our net and their goalie came up with a couple big saves," said Las Vegas defenseman Jason Dest. "When they scored a couple quick goals on us, they took the momentum and we just had a hard time digging out of our hole."

Huddy helped make that hole even deeper when he took advantage of another DeCaro rebound for his second goal of the night and the 4-0 lead just 31 seconds into the third period.

Despite peppering Stockton rookie goalie Parker Van Buskirk with 39 shots, the Wranglers only scored once.

Dest beat Van Buskirk on the glove side with a blistering slap shot at the 4:48 mark to cut the Wranglers' deficit to 4-1 during a four-on-four situation.

"(Tyler) Mosienko made a nice pass and their defenseman gave me a bit of room, so I just fired and hoped for the best," Dest said.

But that is as close as the Wranglers would come before Stockton forward Damian Surma sealed the 5-1 victory with a power play goal in the final four minutes.

Although Las Vegas goalie Glenn Fisher picked up a victory in Game 2 Monday night, Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan put DeCaro between the pipes Thursday. DeCaro allowed all five goals on 35 shots.

Gulutzan declined to speak with the media following the game.

Stars of the game: 1. Parker Van Buskirk (38 saves); 2. Ryan Huddy (2 goals, 1 assist); 3. James Bates (2 assists)

Roster report: Defenseman Chris St. Croix, who has four points in the postseason, did not play Thursday due to an unspecified lower body injury. He joined fellow blue liners Brandon Straub and Bret Tyler on the injured reserve, leaving the Wranglers with only five defensemen.

"St. Croix is one of our veteran defensemen and he's been through a lot of playoff games, so not having him on the bench and on the ice was a big hole, but you know, you can't blame the loss on that," Dest said.

Forward Mick Lawrence saw his first action of the series in Game 3 due to St. Croix's absence. Forwards Hugo Carpentier and Spencer remain on the injured reserve as well.

Watt erupts: J.D. Watt and Bates squared off about two minutes into the third period after Bates appeared to jump Watt from behind while Watt attempted to take a seat on the bench.

Both players received five minute fighting majors, but after Watt had already entered the penalty box referee Jason Nissen levied a game misconduct on Watt for supposedly head-butting Bates during the scrap. Under the ECHL's rule for attempting to deliberately injure an opponent, Watt could face a subsequent suspension. Earlier this season Tim Spencer received a game suspension under the same rule for eye gouging.

Next up: The Wranglers remain in Stockton for Game 4 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The game will be broadcast live on lasvegaswranglers.com.

Final word: "With playoffs you need a short term memory and everyone's focus will be on Saturday night's game," Dest said.

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