Thunder cruise to win over Wranglers

Before Game 3 of the Pacific Division Finals at Stockton (Calif.) Arena on Thursday night, the Wranglers hadn't lost a playoff game this year by more than one goal.

But for the first time this postseason, Las Vegas fell behind by three goals -- trailing 3-0 after two periods -- and couldn't recover en route to a 5-1 loss to the Thunder, which lead the best-of-7 series two games to one.

The Wranglers, who failed to take a lead Thursday for the first time in 10 playoff games, will try to even the series Saturday night in Game 4 at Stockton Arena.

"You've just got to have a short-term memory in the playoffs and look at every game individually," said defenseman Jason Dest, who scored the lone goal for Las Vegas. "We have to focus on Saturday's game. That should be the only thing on our minds right now.

"We just have to stick to our systems, play a little harder and bury some of our chances. We can show a little more grit, like they did tonight."

Center Ryan Huddy had two goals and an assist for Stockton, which scored three goals off rebounds, and goalie Parker Van Buskirk (5-2) stopped 38 of 39 Wranglers shots.

"They were better than us around the net," Dest said. "They buried their chances and played with a little more grit. We just didn't get to our second chances as well as they did.

"Their goalie played really well. We had a lot of shots on him, but he made a lot of nice saves and gave their team a lot of energy."

For the first time in the series, the Thunder struck first, taking a 1-0 lead at 9:40 of the first period when left wing Garet Hunt backhanded a rebound past Las Vegas goalie John DeCaro (1-2-2), who gave up five goals on 35 shots.

Center Craig Valette also buried a rebound for Stockton, on the power play, 3:35 into the second period to give the Thunder a 2-0 edge.

Huddy gave Stockton a 3-0 lead with 7:37 left in the second period, when he snapped a backhander past DeCaro, and he rifled home a rebound 31 seconds into the third period to make it 4-0.

Dest cut the Wranglers' deficit to 4-1 about four minutes later, but that's as close as they would get.

Stockton center Damian Surma's power-play goal with 3:32 remaining in regulation capped the scoring.

The Thunder went 2-for-5 on the power play, and Las Vegas went 0-for-1.

Wranglers right wing J.D. Watt received a game misconduct early in the third period after incurring fighting and head-butting majors for his brawl with Thunder right wing James Bates.

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