Condors capitalize on turnover, top Wranglers

If not for two costly turnovers, the Wranglers very well could be unbeaten after four games this season.

But as it stands, they're 2-2 after a 2-1 loss Thursday night to Bakersfield in a game in which Las Vegas took twice as many shots as the Condors at the Orleans Arena.

Bakersfield forward Rylan Kaip scored the decisive goal for the Condors (2-2) off a turnover by Wranglers left wing Blair Riley midway through the second period.

As time expired on a power play by Las Vegas, Kaip stole the puck from Riley, took off on a breakaway and beat Wranglers goalie Joe Fallon (0-2) on an unassisted backhander with 8:23 left.

"I just tried to get too fancy up on the half wall," said Riley, a rookie from Ferris State. "I thought I could make a pass to (defenseman Sean) McMonagle in the middle. I just made a bad play."

Las Vegas lost its Oct. 22 home opener to Victoria when a turnover by defenseman Mathieu Brodeur led to the decisive goal in a 3-1 defeat.

"We made young mistakes," second-year Wranglers coach Ryan Mougenel said. "Turnovers happen, but our power play didn't respond."

Las Vegas went 0-for-5 with the man advantage and is 3-for-26 on the power play this season.

"The bottom line is the power play is not getting it done, and when the power play is not getting it done, you're not going to win a lot of games," Mougenel said.

That said, the Wranglers carried the play for most of the game, outshooting Bakersfield 38-19, including 16-2 in the third period.

But they couldn't crack Condors goalie Josh Tordjman, who made 37 saves and stopped a barrage of point-blank shots by Las Vegas, including a breakaway by Wranglers left wing Greg Collins less than a minute after Bakersfield took the lead.

"Their goalie played really well," Collins said. "We got the shots we needed to, we've just got to start putting them in.

"They're going to start coming in waves. We've just got to keep bearing down."

Bakersfield scored two goals in a 2:20 span in the second period to erase a 1-0 deficit.

Bonanza High School product Adam Naglich helped set up the tying score, backhanding a quick pass to Pascal Morency, who rocketed a one-timer from the right circle past Fallon with 10:43 left in the second.

"We ran into a hot goalie, and they capitalized on two of our glaring mistakes," Mougenel said. "The guys might have thought it would be a ho-hum Thursday night game, but there's no such thing as a ho-hum game in our league."

Left wing Ryan Huddy, who notched a natural hat trick for Las Vegas in its season-opening 4-3 win at Bakersfield, scored his fourth goal in two games against the Condors this season to give Las Vegas a 1-0 lead with 1:20 left in the first period.

Huddy, whose father, Charlie, won five Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers in a 17-year NHL career, skated behind the net before firing a shot from a tough angle near the goal line that somehow found its way between Tordjman's legs for an unassisted score.

The Wranglers will host the Alaska Aces (3-1) at 7:05 p.m. today.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.