Thursday, April 15, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.
As the Las Vegas Wranglers left the ice Wednesday night, their faces told the story of the evening.
Most trudged along with their heads hung low, more than a few held back tears, others reached up to give a glove-covered five to a fan as the remainder of the Orleans Arena crowd of 3,176 cheered their team for the last time.
The Idaho Steelheads completed their comeback with a solid 3-0 shutout of the Wranglers in the deciding Game 5 of their first-round series of the Kelly Cup Playoffs.
The teams headed to Boise last Saturday with the Wranglers up 2-0 in the series, although the Steelheads outplayed the Wranglers in both of the first two games. But two things changed to spark the Idaho comeback. The first was a controversial goal called against Idaho in Friday's game, which the ECHL later admitted was a bad call. The other was the return of goalie Dan Ellis, who started for the Steelheads in Game 3 after being sent down from Triple-A Utah.
"We finally started to have success, we didn't turn anything around. We played very well in all five games," Idaho coach John Olver said. "This was a great series, with two very equal teams."
But, he said, that controversial Game 2 goal was what pushed the Steelheads over the top.
"I think we really were an angry hockey team, we definitely were not going to lose Saturday night," Olver said. "Las Vegas played really well the last two games."
Down the hall, the Las Vegas locker room was absolutely silent following a lengthy speech by first-year coach Glen Gulutzan.
Sitting alone in his office as players began to file out for the final time this season, Gulutzan admitted his team's playoff struggles.
He said of the 15 periods in the series, his team may have won four.
"People say the playoffs are a grind. Winning the first two games, we didn't grind out to win," he said. "We lulled ourselves to a false sense of security, and I think they got the mental edge."
Both teams played very evenly through the first period, and the Wranglers appeared to be getting an edge in the second period.
They outshot Idaho 19-9 in the second, including a shot late in the second that appeared to bounce off the top crossbar of the goal.
Jan Kopecky's second goal of the postseason sneaked by Magliarditi at 14:17 in the second, and the Wranglers appeared to be beaten.
But the backbreaker, Gulutzan said, was Dylan Gyori's shot from the blue line just two minutes into the third period. That shot sailed over Magliarditi's left shoulder and moved Idaho on to the second round.
Magliarditi declined to speak with reporters following the game.
Just as crushing was Idaho's defense, anchored by Ellis, who Gulutzan said was "OK," despite shutting out the Wranglers in two of past three games.
"Idaho played such stingy defense, we couldn't get out of the hole," he said.
Ellis said he wasn't concerned about coming into the series down 0-2.
"I had confidence in the guys, we're a character team, we've always battled through adversity," he said. "We had no pressure on ourselves, all the pressure was on them to put the fork in us."
Idaho moves on to face the Alaska Aces in the second round of the Kelly Cup playoffs, beginning Friday night. Alaska upset top-seeded San Diego ins the first round.
WRANGLERS NOTES: The higher-seeded team won only one of the eight first-round Kelly Cup playoff series. Five of the six teams in the playoffs named for states won their first-round series. ... Up to three Wranglers may retire now that the season has ended, including Chris Kenady, Jon Shockey and Chris Wheaton. ... The Wranglers drew 190,048 fans in their inaugural season, with an average home attendance of 4,873.
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