After going through a mini slump earlier this month, coach Marco Sturm saw his Ontario Reign club pump out six goals in a win over Calgary on Tuesday — their largest offensive explosion in a single game since producing back-to-back eight goal efforts in early November.
Now comes the challenge of doing it again. Friday night, Sturm and the Reign will arrive in Bakersfield to face a Condors team they’ve already beaten twice this season, including winning the last two of the three games played against their longtime Pacific Division rival.
Kings prospect Eric Portillo appears set to get the nod in net. He’s yet to face the Condors in 2024-25, with Jacob Ingham getting the first game back in October, followed by Pheonix Copley taking the crease in Ontario’s two victories over Bakersfield.
On the blueline, indications are that captain Joe Hicketts will draw back in — most likely on the second pair. To create a spot for him, Sturm appears to be giving rookie defenseman Jakub Dvorak the night off (at least based on pairings at practice yesterday).
Up front, fellow rookie Aatu Jamsen isn’t quite ready to make his return to the lineup, yet there was at least some encouraging news when he returned to practice on Thursday and took regular rotations. Thus, he’s getting closer.
Andre Lee recorded his first multi-point game of the season last time out, scoring what ended up as the game winning goal on the power play, plus adding the lone assist on Taylor Ward’s insurance goal a few minutes later to put the Reign up 3-1 at that point. With his goal, Lee now has goals in back-to-back contests, as he also scored the first goal of the game on Sunday (also against Calgary). He was also plus-3 in both games.
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. CONDORS
Updated at game time:
Hudon – Gawdin – Malott
Chromiak – Pinelli – Fagemo
Lee – Studnicka – Ward
Element – Madden – Doty
Jones – Walsh
Hicketts – Millar
Booth – Rowe
Portillo
Copley
Other roster options include: (F) Jamsen, Singleton and (D) Dvorak, Krygier
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm Pacific Time and the game can be viewed on FloHockey. An audio only feed is also available on the ESPN LA app.
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