Storm keeping hockey afloat in desert

It is a few minutes before 7 on Thursday night. The hockey teams have just completed their pregame skate when the coach of the home side sidles up to introduce himself. He asks a visitor if he’d like a hooded sweatshirt, because standing at ice level at the Las Vegas Ice Center is a lot like standing in a meat locker.

From the way people are talking, Las Vegas might be getting an NHL franchise sooner than later. But if it happens, the coach of the Las Vegas Blade Runners, or whatever the new team will be called, probably will not offer guests seated at rinkside the use of his hoodie.

That’s part of the charm of the Western States Hockey League, part of the charm of attending a Las Vegas Storm game at the Las Vegas Ice Center for the first time. Or for the second, third or fourth time. It smacks of hockey played on a frozen pond, only with a Zamboni coming out between periods.

But if you forget your hoodie, not to worry. One can always warm up at Brooksy’s Bar &Grill and have a calzone while the Storm are killing an interference penalty.

The WSHL was founded in 1994. It is a Tier III Junior A league, Tier III being the lowest rung on the junior (players ages 16 through 20) ladder. But it still looks and sounds like real hockey, especially when players get bodychecked into the Plexiglas, and the Plexiglas rattles.

There were 65 spectators at Thursday’s game pitting the Storm against the Fresno Monsters. I’ll bet most couldn’t tell the difference between Tier III junior hockey and Tier II.

Las Vegas has fielded teams in the WSHL before but not since the 2002-03 season. With the Wranglers of the ECHL having been put into mothballs and the NHL not arriving for at least another season or two, the Storm are the highest level of organized hockey operating in Las Vegas. Which is what the Storm would like local hockey fans who need a live hockey fix to know.

Tickets are $10; kids who wear a hockey jersey get in free with a parent, or for $5 without mom and dad. Chuck-a-pucks? Five for $5. You get to toss them at a hockey helmet in the center ice faceoff circle between the second and third periods. Nobody chucked a puck inside the helmet the night I was there; nobody took home the $247.50 jackpot.

So the Storm, which are nearing the halfway point of the 46-game WSHL season, is a little about live entertainment at a reasonable price and a little about chucking pucks. It’s mostly about giving aspiring Jason Zuckers a place to skate without having to leave home.

Zucker plays for the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. He’s the first kid from Las Vegas to play in the NHL, but he had to pack his bags at an early age to pursue his dream, because there simply are not enough talented players in Las Vegas against which to hone hockey skills. Now, with the advent of the Storm, there are a few more.

Five of the 22 Las Vegas players are from Las Vegas; three are from California; most of the rest are from the sort of European countries where they send a St. Bernard for you when you get lost in the snow: Russia, Finland, Austria, Switzerland.

The coach of the Storm is Gabe Gauthier, whose name conjures an image of a guy who grinds for the puck in the corners and plays both ends of the ice. But Gauthier was born in Anaheim, Calif. Like Zucker, Gauthier had to leave home at an early age so he could learn how to grind in the corners and play both ends of the ice.

When he was 13, he went to prep school in Massachusetts. From there, he played for the Chilliwack Chiefs of the Tier II British Columbia Hockey League, and from there he earned a scholarship to play at the University of Denver; he skated on NCAA national championship teams in 2004 and 2005. Then he signed a free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Kings.

In 2007-08, Gauthier lit the red lamp 23 times and assisted on 37 other goals in 61 games for the American Hockey League’s Manchester Monarchs, the Kings’ top farm club. He would have two cups of coffee with Los Angeles, appearing in eight NHL games.

No, Gabe Gauthier did not go on to become an NHL star. But he made it to the highest rung on the ladder. He made it by starting off on the bottom rung, in the juniors.

“It’s like we tell our players, if you’re good enough, they’ll find you,” Gauthier says of hockey scouts.

So far this season, 57 WSHL players have signed to play college hockey, most at NCAA Division III schools. None of the Storm players are on the official commitment list, but there’s still a lot of Tier III junior hockey to be played, still a lot of pucks to be chucked at the helmet in the faceoff circle at the Las Vegas Ice Center.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.