Las Vegas goaltender Marc Magliarditi makes a glove save, one of his 25 stops on the night, during the Wranglers 5-0 series-opening victory over the Alaska Aces on Monday night in Anchorage, Alaska. Photo by Bill Roth/Special to the Review-Journal.

The Las Vegas Wranglers battled Alaska for the best record in the ECHL all season, falling short by one point in the end, with the Aces earning the coveted home-ice advantage through the playoffs.

But Las Vegas erased that edge in dominant fashion Monday night, stunning Alaska in a 5-0 victory at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage to take a 1-0 lead in the West Division finals.

The Wranglers, who lost three straight games at Alaska early in the regular season, dealt the Aces their worst loss of the season at home, where they fell to 32-5-2.

"It's big to get our first win of the year here," said center Derek Edwardson, who had a goal and two assists. "Obviously, last time we got spanked when we were here, so this gives us a little bit of confidence."

The league's best two teams will go at it again at 8:15 p.m. today for Game 2 of the best-of-7 series.

"It's far from over, we all know that," said Wranglers goalie Marc Magliarditi, who made 29 saves en route to his ECHL career record 27th shutout. "Obviously, we beat them pretty good in their home building, with a sellout crowd, so (tonight) they're going to come out flying more than ever, and we've got to be even better."

Las Vegas, which stormed back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat Idaho in the first round, only mustered 10 shots on net in the first two periods against the top defensive team in the league, but scored goals on four of those attempts to take a 4-0 lead.

Sean O'Connor carried the puck from behind the net to the goal line, flipping it just under the crossbar to beat Aces goalie and ECHL MVP Matt Underhill. That goal gave Las Vegas a 1-0 edge with 7:04 left in the first period despite getting outshot 12-4.

Ex-Ace Charles Linglet, Marco Peluso and Edwardson scored in the second period, and Steve Crampton scored his sixth playoff goal early in the third period.