ECHL: WRANGLERS WHIP THUNDER IN GAME 7, ADVANCE

Anything can happen in a Game 7 — unless it involves the Wranglers playing on their home ice. In that case, Las Vegas produces a dominant performance to sap all the drama out of the winner-take-all showdown.

The Wranglers ripped Idaho 6-2 in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series in 2006 and beat Bakersfield 5-1 in the first round of this year’s playoffs.

On Wednesday night, Las Vegas steamrolled Stockton 5-1 in the seventh game of the Pacific Division finals to close out the series in front of 3,282 fans at the Orleans Arena.

“You don’t want to be in Game 7, but sometimes you’ve got to have your back against the wall to bring out the best in you,” Wranglers goalie Glenn Fisher said. “Hopefully we can figure out how to do it without the pressure in the next series early on.”

Las Vegas advanced to the National Conference finals for the second straight season. The Wranglers will face the top-seeded Alaska Aces in the best-of-7 series, with Games 1 and 2 scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

“We’ve got a real big challenge now,” Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Now we get a chance to face one of the giants in the league.”

Fisher, who sat on the bench for Stockton during last year’s first-round playoff loss to Las Vegas, stopped 41 of 42 shots on Wednesday to improve to 6-2 in the playoffs.

“He was huge tonight,” Gulutzan said. “We needed some real huge saves at critical points of the game, and he gave them to us.

“Our guys played well from the start, with a lot more energy.”

Five players scored goals for the Wranglers, who stormed to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Rookie left wing Mick Lawrence, who netted the winning goal in Las Vegas’ 3-2 overtime win in Game 5 at Stockton, scored on a rocket from the left circle 4:04 into Game 7 to give the Wranglers a 1-0 lead.

Tyler Mosienko assisted on the power-play goal and then scored one of his own with 8:34 left in the first period to give Las Vegas a 2-0 lead.

The Wranglers, who outshot the Thunder 15-5 in the first period, took a 3-0 lead with 2:52 left in the second period when rookie forward Scott McCulloch rifled a shot from the top of the left circle.

“We historically play better with the lead with this team. It was big for us to get up,” Gulutzan said. “The guys get more confidence and more juice.”

Chris Neiszner scored at the 2:45 mark of the third period to make it 4-0. Stockton spoiled Fisher’s shutout bid when Cory Urquhart beat him with a backhander at the 5:48 mark to pull within 4-1.

While Las Vegas went 2-for-4 on its league-leading power play, the Thunder finished 0-for-9 and failed to score on a pair of lengthy two-man advantages.

“The only thing you can say about that is your best penalty killer is your goalie,” Mosienko said. “Looking at the stats tonight, that was strictly the case.”

Wranglers defenseman Sean Owens capped the scoring in spectacular fashion, launching a short-handed, empty-net goal from deep in his own end with 1:51 remaining in regulation.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.