Wranglers set mark in ‘ugly’ 9-2 defeat

Swedish goalie Joel Gistedt and his Wranglers teammates made history Thursday at the Orleans Arena -- just not the kind they wanted.

Gistedt gave up nine goals to the Utah Grizzlies in a 9-2 loss, setting a franchise record for most goals allowed in a home game and tying former Las Vegas goalie Marc Magliarditi's franchise mark for most goals allowed in a game.

''It was ugly,'' Las Vegas coach Ryan Mougenel said. ''Was Joel stellar? No, but we didn't do him any favors. We weren't ready to go. I'm embarrassed for us and apologetic to the fans. It's unacceptable. ... I thought our (defensemen) were beyond soft.''

Magliarditi, the ECHL's all-time leader in shutouts, allowed nine goals in a 9-5 loss at Idaho on Jan. 27, 2006, and Tim Boron and John Curry gave up a combined eight goals in an 8-5 home loss to Utah on Nov. 2, 2007.

Eight goals were the most allowed by the Wranglers at the Orleans Arena until Thursday, when Utah scored four times in each of the first two periods and once in the third.

Seven players scored for the Grizzlies (2-2-0), who netted goals on three of their first four shots to take a 3-0 lead 6:37 into the game.

Coming off two emotionally charged wins over Alaska, Las Vegas came out flat and never recovered.

''Going down 2-0 in the first five minutes kind of drains everybody's confidence. From there, we didn't correct it,'' Wranglers defenseman Jason Krischuk said. ''It's always embarrassing to lose at home and to lose at home 9-2 ... I'm surprised more people didn't leave.''

Ryan Kinasewich and Dylan Hunter each had two goals and an assist, Matt Caria had a goal and four assists and James Sixsmith had a goal and two assists for Utah, which went 3-for-6 on the power play.

Gistedt, 21, a 2007 second-round draft pick of the Phoenix Coyotes who played in place of suspended Wranglers goalie Michael Ouzas, fell to 0-2-0 with a league-worst 6.84 goals-against average and .778 save percentage.