On vacation, Wranglers coach attempts to save drowning man

Thursday, July 12, 2012 | 6:04 p.m.

Ryan Mougenel

Just a few months after leading the Las Vegas Wranglers to their second Western Conference championship, head coach Ryan Mougenel was enjoying some time away from the rink in Boston on Thursday afternoon.

While Mougenel and his wife were taking in the scenery at a park at Boston Harbor with their 3-month-old daughter, he noticed an elderly man fall from a barrier into the ocean just after 4 p.m. Eastern time.

Mougenel, who was on his cellphone at the time of the man’s fall, handed the phone to his wife and dove into the water after the drowning man, along with two other good samaritans.

“An older gentleman in his underwear slipped underneath the barrier and I jumped into the ocean,” Mougenel said. “By the time me and two others got to him he was already unconscious. We kept his head up until the water taxi came to us.”

Mougenel and the other two rescuers were able to keep the 54-year-old man afloat long enough for paramedics to arrive.

“He was unconscious. He definitely wasn’t breathing. He was distressed,” Mougenel said.

The man was rushed to a hospital and his condition is undetermined.

Mougenel’s wife is a Boston native and they were in town visiting her family. He described the event as surreal and mentioned that time seemed to be moving in slow motion during the more than 30 minutes in the water.