Wranglers jump out early, hold off Condors for 6-5 win

So much for a convincing victory for the Wranglers, who nearly squandered a four-goal lead in a 6-5 win over Bakersfield on Monday at the Orleans Arena.

After taking leads of 5-1 after two periods and 6-2 midway through the third, Las Vegas gave up three goals in the final 2:48 of regulation before finally holding off the Condors, who scored their final goal with 33 seconds left.

"The only reason we won this game was because of their goaltending. Their goaltending wasn't up to par," Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. "Otherwise, we were just OK."

Shawn Limpright scored a power-play goal to give Las Vegas a seemingly comfortable 6-2 lead with 8:38 left to play, but Bakersfield (14-25-6) did not give up.

Mark Derlago and Bret Pilkington scored goals 28 seconds apart to make it a 6-4 game with 2:20 to play.

With 33 seconds left, Pilkington again beat Wranglers goalie Kevin Lalande -- who stopped 20 of 25 shots -- to close the gap to 6-5.

Mick Lawrence and Justin Taylor each finished with a goal and two assists and Limpright, Chris Neiszner and Kelly Czuy added a goal and an assist apiece to lift Las Vegas (20-18-4) to two games over .500 for the first time this season.

Neiszner scored 37 seconds into the game to give Las Vegas a 1-0 lead.

Lawrence and Tyler Mosienko netted goals 33 seconds apart early in the second per-iod to give the Wranglers a 3-0 edge and chase Bakersfield goalie Yutaka Fukufuji.

But Condors netminder Dave McKee didn't fare much better, allowing two goals on the five shots he faced in the second period.

Fukufuji returned to net to start the third period and allowed four goals on 21 shots.