Wranglers find home ice more to their liking

With apologies to the fine citizens of Bakersfield, Calif., the Wranglers are in no hurry to return to their city.

Las Vegas' ECHL team endured an aggravating trip to Bakersfield on Saturday night, and returned home with barely enough time to put a happy ending on a long weekend Sunday afternoon.

The Wranglers' scheduled 7 p.m. Saturday start at Rabobank Arena was delayed by two hours because of poor ice conditions. The game finally began, and the surface was bumpy throughout Las Vegas' 4-3 shootout loss.

But the Wranglers' ordeal wasn't over. Soon after the game ended at 11:33 p.m., they boarded their bus home to Las Vegas, where they had a 2:05 p.m. game Sunday against Ontario (Calif.) at Orleans Arena.

The Wranglers gained a 4-3 victory over the Reign on Josh Lunden's goal in overtime. Home ice proved far smoother than Las Vegas' bumpy Saturday night in Bakersfield.

"It was full of moguls," coach Ryan Mougenel said of the Rabobank Arena surface. "It was like a black diamond (ski trail) on the ice. It was dangerous.

"In my opinion, the game shouldn't have been played. My players didn't want to play on it, and I don't blame them. But ultimately, it wasn't my decision. Thank God nothing happened."

The Wranglers' trip home was delayed in the wee hours of Sunday morning when the team was stranded on its bus in Barstow with no heat and no driver -- he had to be relieved after completing his 10-hour shift.

"So we were on the side of the road waiting for another hour for our bus drivers to switch," Mougenel said. "And we were on a freezing cold bus, where the heat didn't work."

The Wranglers finally arrived in Las Vegas around 6 a.m., got to bed around 7 and were back at the rink by 12:30 p.m. for their third game in three days.

Not surprisingly, the Wranglers started slowly and trailed early 2-0, but they stormed back for a 3-2 lead and prevailed when Lunden scored on a wraparound with 1:18 left in overtime to complete his hat trick.

"It was definitely a little bit of adversity there, but good teams don't make excuses and they battle through anything that comes their way," said Lunden, who returned to the division-leading Wranglers on Saturday from St. John's of the American Hockey League, flying all day from Newfoundland to Bakersfield.

The victory snapped a season-long three-game losing streak by Las Vegas (31-16-5, 67 points), which increased its Pacific Division lead to seven points over second-place Ontario (28-15-5, 61).

"They're an awesome bunch," Mougenel said of his players. "They could've had every excuse in the world."

The Reign, who had won eight of nine, took a 2-0 lead in the first period on power-play goals by Kevin Estrada, the latter with 1:53 left. Las Vegas answered 23 seconds later, when Lunden buried a rebound, and considered itself fortunate to trail only by a goal at period's end..

"We actually passed the blame along for our brutal first period to Bakersfield," Mougenel said. "We got it all out, and that was good for us.

"After that, we took the game over, and we definitely outplayed them."

Lunden tied it at 39 seconds of the second, a period in which Las Vegas outshot Ontario 13-3. Adam Huxley, who fought Chris Huxley (no relation) early in the first, put the Wranglers ahead 3-2 with 20 seconds left in the second, scoring on an odd-man rush with Eric Lampe.

"Huxley had a great fight, which got the boys going, and a great goal as well," Lunden said.

Pete MacArthur and Mike Madill each had two assists for the Wranglers, who outshot the Reign 39-23.

Kyle Kraemer tied it at 3 eight minutes into the third on the power play.

While wrapping up an interview in the locker room, Lunden took a shaving cream pie to the face from teammate Adam Miller, officially putting the icing on the Wranglers' long weekend.

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