Johnson pulls off miracle with big crowd

If you've ever been sent off for high-sticking or changed on the fly, you're probably familiar with the term "playoff hockey."

In the NHL, it's the time of year when guys grow unkempt beards and pummel one another until somebody gets carried off on a stretcher.

Nearly 3 million viewers tuned into Game 3 of the first-round playoff series between the Flyers and Penguins, making it the most-watched non-Stanley Cup Finals game in a decade.

"The teams combined for 148 penalty minutes in a game that saw numerous fights, including a showdown between Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Flyers star Claude Giroux, in addition to one of the dirtiest hits of the postseason by Penguins forward Arron Asham," wrote one Internet blogger/kid with a laptop computer.

When I was young and played hockey on that table game with the levers and metal players and little plastic puck that would get lost in my mom's shag carpet, playoff hockey meant a tight, close-checking game - usually 2-1, with few fights and penalties.

You could never get playoff hockey tickets, except for maybe the Oakland Seals. The arenas were always packed as, by and large, they remain today.

It's different in the minor leagues.

A couple of weeks ago when it was too chilly to properly enjoy "Thirsty Thursday" at Cashman Field, I took in Game 1 of the ECHL Western Conference finals, featuring the Alaska Aces and "your Las Vegas Wranglers," as the public address announcer likes to say.

There were only 2,664 spectators at Orleans Arena.

Instead of a "White Out," like in Phoenix, this was a "Maroon Out," the color of the empty seats.

It brought to mind that Charlestown Chiefs game against Hyannisport early in the movie "Slapshot," before the Chiefs recalled the Hanson Brothers from the Iron League, except that nobody played "Lady of Spain" on the organ, and none of the Alaska players peed his pants after getting checked into the boards because he had been out drinking the night before.

During the regular season, an average of 4,282 paying customers watched ECHL teams whack each other with high sticks and change on the fly. During the playoffs, when season ticket holders are asked to ante up an additional $18 for a seat behind the Plexiglas, and when the circus or a comic book convention usually has dibs on the arena, attendance has dipped to 2,766.

During the regular season, the Wranglers averaged 4,339 at the turnstiles; during the playoffs, only 2,747.

It's nearly Memorial Day, it's baseball season, it's nearly 100 degrees outside, and young women with flat tummies are wearing bikinis at the Hard Rock pool. And the lawn needs mowing or the sprinkler system needs work.  

The minor league hockey fan has moved onto something else. It's called summer.

And that's what made Monday night at the Orleans special.

I saw the Hanson Brothers, or at least three guys from Summerlin wearing replica Charlestown Chiefs sweaters, standing in line for tickets to Game 1 of the Kelly Cup Finals. They were putting on the foil.   

And down on the ice, the Florida Everblades and your Las Vegas Wranglers were sporting playoff beards, and during breaks in the action, they played that Chicago Blackhawks song, "Chelsea Dagger," by The Fratellis.

This felt like something important, something you wanted to see, something you wanted to tell your friends about over a beer, or many beers, afterward.

This felt like playoff hockey. Even if you didn't want to drive the Zamboni.

And this was before Mike Tyson waved to the crowd of 5,729 and bellowed, "Wranglers Rule!"  

"Advertising, group sales and prayer," Wranglers president Billy Johnson wrote in a text message between the first and second periods about turning five loaves of bread, two fish and a leftover Dick Cheney promotional hunting vest into one of the best hockey crowds of the season.

I would have called him, but it was much too loud to carry on a conversation.

Not only was it loud, the way playoff hockey is supposed to sound, but Reg Dunlop will be happy to learn that nobody played "Lady of Spain" on the organ.  

The Wranglers won, 2-1. Playoff hockey.

And when the 5,729 returned home after those beers, the lawn still needed mowing or had gotten a little browner because the sprinkler system still needed fixing.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.