Vegas native to play first pro game in hometown
| Wednesday, Nov 04 2009 09:32 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Nov 04 2009 09:32 PM
Condors at Las Vegas
When Tonight, 7
Where The Orleans Arena
Radio KGEO (1230 AM), 6:45
Condors record 4-4-0
Wranglers record 4-3-0
Series First meeting
Notes Tonight is the first of three straight games against the Wranglers. The teams will meet 14 times this year ... Rookie Dan Sexton leads the Condors in scoring with 11 points (4 goals, 7 assists). Defenseman Sasha Pokulok leads the team in goals with five ... The Condors have been shut out twice in the last five games ... Defenseman Sean Hurley, who played for the Condors last season, is now with Las Vegas.
Adam Naglich has played countless games of hockey in Las Vegas, but none as a professional.
That all changes tonight as Naglich, a rookie center for the Condors, returns to his hometown where he is sure to get a mixed welcome -- cheers from friends and family and boos as a member of the opposing team from Wrangler fans.
"I'm sure I'll have a lot of friends and family there so I'm sure it will be exciting for them to get to see me play," Naglich said. "It will be fun."
Naglich was born and raised in the desert city where he honed his hockey skills before leaving for Victoria and the British Columbia Hockey League. There he did well enough to earn a scholarship to play Division I hockey at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
"It's a little different," Naglich said of Fairbanks. "It's 120 in the summer and minus 50 in the winter.
Actually, it doesn't get that hot in Fairbanks, but it does get that cold. And that's not mixing in the wind chill.
None of that bothered Naglich.
"I really enjoyed Fairbanks a lot," he said. "It was a good time, a great place to play college hockey so it was good."
So, why not Vegas as a pro?
"I really didn't want to play at home," said Naglich, who talked with former Las Vegas coach Glen Gulutzan last season. "I wanted to see something else and be somewhere different so I came here."
Pielmeier to play 3 straight
With goaltender Justin Pogge still on recall to Anaheim, where he is backing up Jonas Hiller to due to an injury to J.S. Giguere, rookie goaltender Timo Pielmeier will have to play three games in three days -- tonight and Friday in Las Vegas and Saturday night in Bakersfield against Las Vegas.
"It's going to be tough on him, but we have no choice," Condors coach Marty Raymond.
Raymond has been told that Pogge will be with Anaheim, which plays at home tonight and on Saturday night, at least through this weekend.
Slap shots
Toss out a 5-for-11 effort against Ontario on Oct. 28 and the Condors are 2-34 on the power play in their other seven games. "That's why we've spent a lot of time working on power play and penalty kill this week in practice," Raymond said. "Usually, I've done it at the end of practice but the guys wanted to work on it early, so I switched it up, and we worked on it before the ice got chewed up."
Raymond said forward Mathieu Aubin will most likely be out for another 10 days to 2 weeks. Raymond was still waiting for test results on center Maxime Macenauer's left knee before saying how long he will be out.
Center Mike Myers was in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Wednesday as he attempts to secure the proper immigration so he can enter the country on a work visa and play for the Condors. The Condors are down to 10 forwards due to the injuries to Aubin and Macenauer.
