Crowded house at the Orleans

By Ron Kantowski

Sunday, June 1, 2008 | 11:14 p.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

NOW

----- I was chatting with Wranglers president Billy Johnson on Thursday afternoon when we agreed there seemed to be a buzz building in anticipation of Game 3 of the Kelly Cup hockey finals. It was confirmed a few hours later when a huge crowd of 6,713 turned out to watch the Cincinnati Cyclones blow past the locals 4-2 to take a 2-1 series edge.

But the next night, that buzz became ... well, a high that rekindled memories of Cheech and Chong in their prime.

The Orleans Arena was a sellout on Friday. There were rumors that fans had to park their cars at the Palms and take a shuttle over to the House That Gaughan Built as even the auxiliary lots were full of SUVs with Detroit Red Wings and Terrible Herbst bumper stickers on them.

Every once in a while, this town has a way of surprising you, and Friday night's capacity crowd of 7,703 was one of those. This time, the Wranglers rewarded their faithful -- and a whole lot of bandwagon jumpers -- with a 2-0 victory that evened the best-of-7 series at 2-2.

Wranglers goalie Kevin Lalande pitched a shutout with 27 saves. But the real No. 1 star of this game were the Las Vegas sports fans who came out in such large numbers.

They yelled and cheered and told the referee and linesmen that collectively, they made a sound like a vacuum cleaner. And while they gave the Cyclones a hard time, they did not throw Super Balls at them, or any other toy relics manufactured by the Wham-O company.

----- DESPITE strong rumors that his neck was being prepared for Mike Hamrick's ax, UNLV baseball coach Buddy Goudsmith was given a reprieve by his athletic director despite this season's 22-37 record. Hamrick said the reason he decided not to fire Gouldsmith is because his team goes to class, does not get into trouble, and won a lot of games in his first two years before losing a lot of games in his past three.

Hmmm. I wonder how Regina Miller feels about that? She coached the Lady Rebels to eight consecutive winning seasons before having two losing ones and getting canned.

GPAs and clean living notwithstanding, I believe the bigger reason Gouldsmith kept his job is because he is the Kmart of college baseball coaches and there is no way UNLV could get anybody to do the job as cheaply as he does it. With funding from Carson City drying up like Lake Mead, Gouldsmith is a bargain at $77,681 per year.

And on top of that, he's a nice guy.

----- MICHAEL Brenly, the catcher for the UNLV baseball team, got some air time at Saturday's Cubs-Rockies game at Wrigley Field. Brenly's father Bob is the Cubs' TV analyst, which explains why Michael, his mom, and his girlfriend had Harry Caray seats in the Wrigley Field press box. I was going to say that UNLV should put Bob Brenly on the payroll for all the free plugs he gives the Rebels' baseball team on Superstation WGN, but then it would probably have to drop softball.

----- HE'S not Coach La Rocque anymore, but you can still call him Al: Beverly La Rocque threw a retirement party Saturday night for her husband Al, who recently hung up his whistle after 34 years of coaching boys and girls basketball in Las Vegas. The deck of the La Rocque swimming pool looked like a Nike convention, there were so many coaches on it. The most conspicuous one? -- Arizona's Lute Olson, who once upon a time was La Rocque's coach at Long Beach City College.

While La Rocque isn't exactly fond of referees and sports writers, there were one or two of each to see him off. I thought Marc Ratner, the head of the Southern Nevada officials association (among other things), was going to call a "T" on Bev La Rocque for breaking the knob on the margarita machine before he decided to keep his whistle in his pocket. I don't know if that was because he didn't see the knob fall off, or because he was standing next to the deep end of the pool with all of those coaches.

----- I TRIED to watch Orange Slice or Arms Akimbo or whatever that big, hairy dude who topped Saturday's mixed martial arts card on CBS calls himself. Sorry, gang, still a boxing fan. I will say this: Glamor girl Gina Carano, whose father Glen used to be Roger Staubach's caddy with the Cowboys and later served on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, hits harder than Ricky Hatton. Apparently, she eats/drinks like him too, She came in overweight and was breathing more heavily than her many male admirers by the time she got through turning her opponent's face into Hamburger Helper.

THEN

----- Friday's sellout crowd at the Wranglers' game brought back memories of the night the Village People played a postgame concert at a Las Vegas Thunder game. The concert was free, but the only way you got in was to buy a ticket for the game. I don't recall if the Thomas & Mack Center was sold out that night, but it was close. What I do recall is hockey fans forming a Conga line during "Macho Man" and three supporters of the Fort Wayne Komets (or maybe it was the Peoria Rivermen) trying to high stick the Construction Worker because they didn't believe he was really "In the Navy."

The Construction Worker's real name is David Hodo. I know this, because the night before the game, he called the house. The Village People were enjoying a renaissance of sorts thanks to minor league hockey, and I had left a message with the Peeps' management company to have one of them call me.

I'll never forget my wife's expression when she handed me the phone and said "The Construction Worker from the Village People wants to speak with you."

THIS WEEK

----- "Now and Then" takes a break. I'll be in San Diego, watching Alfonso Soriano drop fly balls.