Reign Weekend Preview: Ontario Battles San Antonio & San Jose
Welcoming Colorado back to the Pacific Division! And also, seeing a familiar foe in the Barracuda.
Updated 11/1/15
On Friday, the Reign finally lost, but it was in OT, as the Rampage's Ben Street finished the second of back-to-back breakaways. In yesterday's re-match, Ontario flung 21 shots at San Antonio in the first period, but dropped OT again to you guessed it, Street.
Right after the game, the Reign hopped on the bus for San Jose; they're finishing the final leg of their back-to-back-back at SAP Center this afternoon.
Thankfully, the Reign are done with home openers and can move on with the season. Coach Stothers has been in a jolly mood lately and hasn't really juggled the lines too much. That will probably change this weekend due to injuries - more on that later.
San Antonio Rampage @ Ontario Reign (Citizens Business Bank Arena) / Ontario Reign @ San Jose Barracuda (SAP Center)
Days: Friday (CBBA)/Saturday (CBBA)/Sunday (SAP)
Time: 7 PM Pacific (Friday), 3 PM Pacific (Saturday), 3 PM Pacific (Sunday)
Listen: Mixlr
Watch: AHL Live
Lines
(based on last games and confirmed reports)
Reign
9 Kempe - 21 Crescenzi - 16 Backman
27 Mersch - 26 Dowd - 7 Zykov
39 Auger - 24 Horvat - 12 Brodzinski
18 Samuels-Thomas - 14 Arnold - 25 Sabourin
20 MacDermid - 5 Loverde
4 Gravel - Forbort?
55 Schultz - 33 Raine
31 Budaj
32 Emery
- Kris Newbury is out for at least 4-6 weeks, after fracturing his foot when he blocked a shot. Stothers called it "a big loss" for his team.
- The Reign went up north, but Derek Forbort stayed behind with the Kings.
- Due to the injuries to Bissonnette and Newbury, the Reign have called up Derek Arnold and Kenton Miller from the ECHL to provide depth.
- You may remember Arnold from his impressive showing at rookie camp, in which he outplayed 90% of LA's drafted prospects. Stothers put Miller next to Horvat-Brodzinski on Friday, then replaced him with Arnold last night.
- Peter Budaj will make his sixth straight start for Ontario, but will get a rest on Saturday thanks to the back-to-back-back situation with some travel involved. Ray Emery will finally make his Ontario debut on Saturday.
Barracuda
38 Haley - 40 Carpenter - 55 Emanuelsson
82 Goldobin - 77 Timmins - 53 Jevpavols
? - 86 Langlois - 84 Parkes
23 McLaren - 73 Crane - 67 Arseneau
70 Young - ?
45 Cundari - 63 Bergman
3 Stollery - 47 Ryan
30 Dell
1 Grosenick
- Bryan Lerg and Dylan DeMelo were just called up by the parent club, while John McCarthy and Mirco Mueller were recently re-assigned. Both McCarthy and Mueller should figure into this Sunday’s plans for the Barracuda.
- Troy Grosenick, who left the game last Saturday because he was struck by Jordan Samuels-Thomas, is on track to dress. However, Dell gets the start.
Rampage
28 Agozzino - 10 Street - 96 Rantanen
71 Rendulic - 38 Hishon - 37 Smith
24 Schumacher - 25 Cliche - 48 Petryk
27 Martinsen - 42 Henley - 58 Bordeleau
3 Bigras - 43 Clark
15 Siemens - 26 Noreau
4 Geertsen - 22 Redmond
31 Pickard
35 Will
- San Antonio star Andrew Agozzino, who missed a game last weekend, was a full participant in practice on Friday. The 30-goal scorer, who was out on Friday, is coming in on Saturday.
- If the name Rantanen sounds familiar, it should. The 2015 first-rounder skated with Colorado against the Kings a couple weeks ago and enjoyed a terrific AHL debut last Saturday with two points versus Stockton.
2015-2016 Records
- Ontario: 5-0-2-0, 12 points, .857 points % (2nd Pacific Division, 3rd Western Conference)
- San Antonio: 5-0-1-0, 11 points, .917 points % (1st Pacific Division, 1st Western Conference)
- San Jose: 2-3-0-1, 5 points, .417 points % (5th Pacific Division, 9th Western Conference)/
Ontario vs. San Antonio, Head-to-Head in 2015-16
- 0-0-2-0/
Ontario vs. San Jose, Head-to-Head in 2015-16
- 1-0-0-0/
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