Wranglers climb out of 3-0 hole

With his first-place Wranglers trailing second-place Fresno 3-0 Friday, coach Glen Gulutzan was too disgusted to speak to his players between the second and third periods.

Apparently his silence spoke volumes.

Las Vegas responded with a vengeance at the Orleans Arena, scoring three times in the first 6:25 of the third to tie the game. The Wranglers went on to win 4-3 on a shootout goal by Bruce Mulherin, but Gulutzan still wasn't in a mood to celebrate.

"We were lucky to get two points. We didn't deserve to win. They were the better team than us for the first 45 minutes," Gulutzan said. "We've got some work to do if we want to beat this Fresno team come playoff time. They're playing a better team game than we are and outworking us."

The Wranglers (29-8-7, 65 points), who lead the Falcons (24-11-6, 54) by 11 points in the ECHL's Pacific Division, will meet again at 7 p.m. today at Fresno.

The first five games between the teams this season have been decided in overtime or a shootout, with Fresno winning the previous three in Las Vegas in overtime.

"We've got our work cut out for us (tonight) and down the stretch to make sure we stay ahead of these guys," Gulutzan said.

Aki Seitsonen scored a nifty backhanded goal in the third shootout round to give Las Vegas a 1-0 edge, but Fresno's John Morlang tied it in the fifth round.

Mulherin, still rounding into form after missing 20 games with a knee injury, faked a shot to get Falcons goalie Jake Moreland (30 saves) down on the ice, then lifted the puck over him for the winner.

"I was really confident going in. I had the move picked out," Mulherin said. "I was watching the goalie beforehand and noticed he was biting on a shot fake, so that was my game plan."

Wranglers goalie Kevin Lalande, who entered with a 1.49 goals-against average, made 33 saves, including several crucial ones at the end of overtime, when Fresno was on a power play. He also stopped Fresno's first four shots in the shootout and raised his record to 9-2-2.

Ryan Donally, reassigned to the Wranglers by the American Hockey League's Quad City Flames, banged home a rebound 1:34 into the third to trigger Las Vegas' rally.

Tyler Mosienko and Peter Ferraro then scored power-play goals a team-record six seconds apart to tie the score at 3. Mosienko buried a one-timer next to the net off a nice feed from Jason Jozsa at the start of a two-man advantage, then Ferraro poked in a rebound of a blast by Donally from the left circle off the face-off.

Fresno outshot Las Vegas 27-11 in the first two periods and scored three goals in the first 8:38 of the second period to take a 3-0 lead.

• NOTES -- Sean Owens was injured in Sunday's 3-2 shootout victory over Utah and placed on the seven-day injured reserve list. Quad City also assigned rookie defensemen Gord Baldwin and Brad Cole to Las Vegas.