Matchup: Las Vegas Wranglers at Idaho Steelheads, Friday / Saturday / Sunday, January 22 – 24. Qwest Arena. Game time each night is 7 PM.
Nice to meet you: Even though we’re well into the second half of the ECHL season, the Steelheads and Wranglers have played exactly once this season – a Wrangler victory in Las Vegas on December 29. The Steelheads go back to Las Vegas to start February and then the two teams are done for the season unless they cross paths in the postseason.
Derlago getting’ going: Since the calendar has flipped to 2010, explosive forward Mark Derlago has gotten hot. In the five games leading up to the ECHL All Star break, Derlago had three goals and six assists, which catapulted him into second on the team in scoring with 29 points (12 goals, 17 assists) despite missing 11 games due to an American Hockey League call-up and his brother’s wedding back home in Manitoba.
Iron Men: Only three Steelheads appeared in all 37 games prior to the all-star break and two of them, forward John Swanson and defenseman Brendan Milnamow, earned all-star invitations. The third, defenseman Weston Tardy, has 14 points from the blue line this season.
The Idaho Steelheads (25-11-2) fell behind 4-0 in the first period and never recovered as the Las Vegas Wranglers (17-18-4) improved to 2-0-0 against Idaho this season in front of over 5,400 fans at Qwest Arena.
Shay Stephenson put the Wranglers on the board with a wrist shot from the left circle less than four minutes into the game, Alex Bourret scored twice, and the Wranglers’ lone All-Star Adam Miller notched one of his own before the Steelheads could solve Las Vegas goalie Michael Ouzas. With just 16 seconds remaining in the first period, Evan Barlow tallied his 15th of the season to make the score 4-1, Las Vegas with the lead, after 20 minutes.
The second period was all Idaho’s, as the Steelheads pulled to within a goal of the Wranglers. Matt McKnight scored his eighth of the season at 9:13, as Mark McCutcheon registered this second of his four assists in the game. At 13:45, John Swanson followed his own shot off the goal post and banged home the rebound to make the score 4-3, which is how the second period would end.
The Wranglers countered with the first two goals of the final period, as Ned Lukacevic earned a goal to accompany his three assists on the evening, and Alex Bourret completed his hat trick at 12:37.
McKnight scored his second of the game and ninth of the season at 13:31 of the third, and Brandan Kushniruk added a goal just 18 seconds later, but the Steelheads were unable to tie the game despite a late flurry in the Wranglers’ end.
Rejean Beauchemin was pulled after giving up three goals in less than 12 minutes of work. Richard Bachman entered the game, and surrendered three goals on thirteen shots against. Michael Ouzas stopped 43 of 48 shots in the Las Vegas net to preserve the win.
The Steelheads and Wranglers are back in action Saturday night, January 23rd, at Qwest Arena. The puck drops at 7:00 PM.