‘Sloppy’ performance not worthy of crowd

The sea began to form a few hours before any puck was dropped, when hundreds stood in line and children wore fake beards Moses himself might have thought excessively long.

Employee parking lots were opened for overflow traffic. The color red was everywhere, like some giant assemblage of British soldiers.

The Kelly Cup Finals arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday night, and the fervent 6,713 who came to cheer and wave towels and hold signs saw a Wranglers team not up to the challenge of repaying such support.

Any celebration the team might do for winning its first championship will come thousands of miles away, guaranteed by a 4-2 loss to Cincinnati in Game 3 at the Orleans Arena.

The Wranglers trail 2-1 in the series and would be smart not to contemplate for a second such festivity, at least not until they discover a way to solve what to this point has been a better hockey team.

Las Vegas lost Thursday because for a 20-minute stretch, it stopped doing all the things that earned it a 2-0 lead more than halfway through the second period, because the Wranglers swayed from the course and the Cyclones stayed it, because the home team couldn’t attack deep enough offensively and couldn’t avoid careless mistakes at the blue line defensively.

A reminder to Wranglers defensemen: It’s OK to talk during play. Communication is a good thing.

“We started swinging on pucks, we stopped getting it in, we were holding it and staying out too long,” Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We were just sloppy, sloppy.”

If it wasn’t official when the Cyclones scored one minute into Game 1 and had three power-play goals in that first period in Cincinnati, it is now: They are a skilled, fast, tough team worthy of 115 regular-season points.

It helps when you have the second coming of Theo Fleury flying around the ice wearing your colors. David Desharnais is the perfect example of when general managers foolishly can’t see beyond size to save their lives.

Desharnais is 5 feet 6 inches and the ECHL’s Most Valuable Player in his rookie season, undrafted by the NHL for nothing more than how far it takes a tape measure to reach the top of his head.

But he defines the Cyclones down to their last scrappy bone, and on Thursday, he had two assists and an empty-net goal.

Transition is a good thing when you receive as much as Cincinnati did over those seven minutes in the second period, the stretch that led to three straight goals and pretty much showed everything the Wranglers can’t do and expect to win this series.

Watching the Wranglers try to score was like watching paintball shooters trying to hit the enemy through a course filled with walls and towers and other obstructions. The Cyclones plug lanes like a plumber your leaky faucet. They just don’t let anything clean inside.

“Unfortunately, we got buried,” Wranglers right wing Adam Cracknell said. “We have to learn from our mistakes. They’re not letting us get any room for shots, and now we have to do the same to them.

“We have to be more aware and try and get pucks through. They’re a big, strong team, but we have to use our down-low size better and take pucks into the net. We’re not doing that right now, and it’s costing us games.”

It can’t cost them another tonight in Game 4, or those dreams of ordering championship rings will hang like a loose thread on a blouse.

If it’s going to continue being this difficult to score — that’s just five Las Vegas goals in three games for those counting — it’s hard to believe anything but a 3-2 Wranglers lead after Monday evening would allow the home team a legitimate chance at lifting the Kelly Cup.

If it’s going to continue being this difficult to score, a return trip to Cincinnati might not be needed for the Cyclones to begin thinking of their own rings. You can’t be 3-for-20 on the power play over three games against this good an opponent and expect anything less than must-win games tonight and Monday.

Support shouldn’t be an issue. Not if the colorful crowd Thursday — backing the team’s “Red Sea in Game Three” campaign — is any indication. The fans did their part. The Wranglers didn’t.

“They are a stingy team, a lot like us,” Gulutzan said. “But when you have a 2-0 lead, you have to keep grinding the game down, because if you don’t give anything away, you make them change their game somewhat. We didn’t do that.”

What they did was change their game when in control. Sloppy is right.

Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.