Wranglers strike quickly in OT

Before overtime, Chris Francis asked his late father for a little assistance.

Ninety-one seconds into overtime, Francis assisted on the winning goal by Scott Campbell, who buried the feed from the right boards to give the Wranglers a 3-2 playoff victory over Idaho on Tuesday night at Orleans Arena.

"I kind of looked up and asked my dad to help me out, to make us be the one to end the game and, you know, he came through for me," Francis said.

The Steelheads, who tied it with 1:52 left in regulation, tried to clear the puck around the boards early in the extra session. But Francis stopped it and quickly fired a pass in front to Campbell, who punched it past Jerry Kuhn (42 saves) to give Las Vegas a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 ECHL Western Conference semifinals.

Geoff Paukovich also assisted on the play.

"I read the rim, saw Soup (Campell) out of the corner of my eye and decided to throw it there," Francis said. "It got a fortunate bounce, went right on his stick and in the back of the net."

Francis, a former Eldorado High student, lost his father and longtime coach, Dave Francis, more than three years ago when he died at age 62 after suffering a stroke.

"I looked right up after it went in the net," Francis said.

Joe Pereira tied it 2-2 for Idaho, picking up a loose puck next to the net and beating Mitch O'Keefe (28 saves) on his stick side.

"It was just a scramble on the side of the net, and (the puck) popped out to the other side. I couldn't get over there, and they just banged it in," said O'Keefe, who made several stellar stops while improving to 5-0 in the playoffs. "That's the way it is in the playoffs. Sometimes they're greasy goals, but we showed a lot of heart and came back and won."

Idaho generated several strong scoring bids down the stretch.

"The last 10 minutes, they dictated the play," Wranglers coach Ryan Mougenel said. "That was a good lesson for us."

Josh Lunden had a goal and an assist for Las Vegas, Pete MacArthur also scored, and Ash Goldie had two assists.

Lunden beat Kuhn on a shot from the slot to put the Wranglers ahead 1-0 at 4:09 of the second period.

Cody Purves tied it 1-1 for the Steelheads with 8:07 left in the second, punching home a loose puck in a scrum in front of the net.

Las Vegas regained the lead less than three minutes later, when MacArthur beat Kuhn in the slot off a feed from Lunden, who hit MacArthur in stride with a backhanded centering pass from the boards.

"One thing about this team is everybody plays an intricate part and finds a way to win for each other," Mougenel said.

The Wranglers went 0-for-5 on the power play, and Idaho went 0-for-3.

The game started to get physical late in the second period, when Las Vegas defenseman Channing Boe got into a scrap with Idaho left wing Michael Neal and Wranglers right wing Ryan Weston incurred a game misconduct for leaving the bench during an altercation.

Game 3 is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Thursday at CenturyLink Arena in Boise.

"It was a huge win," Mougenel said. "You need those two wins at home."

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