Wranglers rumble over Roadrunners

Looking for their first win streak of the season, the Wranglers started fast and never relented in a 6-2 victory over Phoenix on Saturday night at the Orleans Arena.

Las Vegas (4-4-1) scored four first-period goals to take a 4-1 lead and cruised from there, winning two straight for the first time this season and improving to 4-1-0 at home.

Rookie right wing J.D. Watt notched his first professional hat trick and teamed with linemates Tyler Mosienko and Chris Ferraro for 12 points.

Watt, who also had an assist, scored on a backhander 27 seconds into the contest to give Las Vegas a 1-0 lead.

Watt, who has nine points in seven games for Las Vegas, made it a 3-1 game with 7:10 left in the first when he deflected a left-point shot by Mike Madill into the back of the net.

He capped his night with 5:57 left in the game, beating RoadRunners goalie Craig Kowalski in front of the net to make it 6-1.

Ferraro and Mosienko each finished with a goal and three assists.

Mike Hamilton also scored for Las Vegas, netting a power-play goal in the first period.

The Wranglers finished 1-for-6 on the power play, and Phoenix finished 1-for-9 with the man advantage.

Goalie John DeCaro stopped 26 shots by the RoadRunners (6-3-2), who saw their franchise-record six-game unbeaten streak end.

The teams combined for 98 penalty minutes on 28 infractions and mixed it up in the third period, much to the delight of the crowd of 4,429. Las Vegas left wing Tim Spencer traded punches with Phoenix defenseman Brett Thurston, and Wranglers left wing Shawn Limpright duked it out with RoadRunners defenseman Matt Burke and left wing James McEwan in separate incidents.

• NOTES -- Las Vegas traded rookie forward Matt Mc- Knight to Idaho for future considerations, and goalie Martin Houle was returned by Peoria of the American Hockey League. ... Limpright was activated from the seven-day injured reserve list. ... Phoenix fell to Fresno 3-2 Wednesday in a shootout that lasted 20 rounds. It was the second-longest shootout in ECHL history, behind a 21-rounder between Hampton Roads and Birmingham in 1992.