At least the Las Vegas Wranglers had a longer season than the Detroit Red Wings.
Wednesday night, the Red Wings clinched the Stanley Cup championship in the NHL. Thursday night, the Wranglers lost the ECHL Kelly Cup to the Cincinnati Cyclones.
At U.S. Bank Arena, the Cyclones defeated the Wranglers, 3-1, to win the Kelly Cup in six games. Losing two of three games to Cincinnati over the weekend put the Wranglers in too deep of a hole.
Cincinnati scored the go-ahead goal Thursday 35 seconds into the third period, when forward Matt Syroczynski slapped in a wide-open goal by the left side of Wranglers goalie Kevin Lalonde.
Lalonde had been following traffic to his right, and Syroczynski had no trouble beating Lalone at the other side.
Then defenseman Jon Gleed beat Lalonde six minutes later for breathing room.
As happened all during the Finals, Las Vegas struggled on the power play, scoring only once in seven opportunities. For the series, the Wranglers were 4-for-39 with at least a man advantage. The Cyclones were 6-for-31.
The only other U.S. hockey league playing hockey is the American Hockey League, which the ECHL feeds and is a level below the AHL. Chicago and Wilkes-Barre are playing for that league’s Calder Cup.
It was the first time in the five-year history of the Wranglers that they advance to the title series.
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