Much like their NHL parent, the San Jose Barracuda are having a rather difficult 2023-24. With only 11 games remaining on their regular season schedule, they’re battling to stay out of last place in the AHL.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Reign arrived in Silicon Valley looking to clinch a spot in next month’s Calder Cup Playoffs. If coach Marco Sturm can guide his team to a victory tonight, coupled with a Gulls loss to the Condors, step one in their Redemption Tour will be complete. Post-season play hasn’t been kind to the Reign the past three seasons and they’re looking to fix that this year. Qualifying for the tournament is just the beginning.
If the Playoffs started today, Ontario would hold home ice advantage over the Condors, and that could be key to their desire to go on an extended run. Round 1 will be a best-of-three series, all played at the home arena of the higher seed.
First things first, though. The Reign will become road warriors of sorts over their final 10 regular season games, with visits to San Jose, Henderson, Coachella Valley, Bakersfield, and Colorado. Despite winning three straight and seven of their last 10 games, Ontario’s upcoming schedule will be difficult, as half of their opponents will be playoff teams.
Making matters even more challenging is the fact that leading goal scorer Sammy Fagemo is not available to play yet. After leaving last Friday’s game midway through the third period, he has been sidelined with an undisclosed injury. While initially reported to us as just “bumps and bruises,” Sturm indicated his star forward was set to meet with medical staff on Monday. While nothing official has been released quite yet, Fagemo did not travel with the team to San Jose and to the best of our knowledge he has not resumed skating yet.
Nonetheless, Sturm and his squad press ahead, in search of another two points.
“It started a few weeks ago actually,” said Ontario’s bench boss. “We started to have guys out, but it didn’t matter. We’ve played the same way and we found a little bit of our identity. Everyone kind of found their role in the team too. The third and fourth lines are the guys who stepped up and said ‘OK, this is my job, this is what we have to do.’ We need everyone, that’s what it is. It comes down to everyone, especially if we don’t have a guy like Sammy Fagemo, who is one of our top players, out of the lineup.”
One of those bottom-6 forwards has been first-year pro Frank Pinelli:
Even when they’ve had a full complement of players, though, a troubling trend over the past month or so for the Reign has been their rather slow starts. Heading into Sunday’s contest – where Akil Thomas scored just 2:52 into the opening frame – Ontario had scored a first period goal in just five of 20 games.
“The frustrating part has been sometimes we’ve had a good start, but somehow the [opposition] scores on one or two shots, and then you’re like, ‘Here we go again.’ We’ve also had some good games, where we got the lead. Personally, I think we are just a better team when we feel more comfortable, when we have the lead. That’s why a good start is more important than anything else.”
In six previous games vs. the Barracuda this season, Sturm has seen his club skate off with six victories. Over that perfect stretch, Ontario has outscored them 26-9, including four goals from Thomas. However, Fagemo had really been the one to dominate San Jose this year, putting up 16 points (11G, 5A) in those six games.
For tonight’s contest, Sturm appears to be going with the same lineup used in Sunday’s victory at Toyota Arena, including penciling in Kings prospect Brandt Clarke on the top defensive unit.
The 20-year-old rookie has suited up in eight games for the Reign thus far this month, something he probably wasn’t expecting at this point of the season. However, after positing assists in back-to-back games now and transitioning from a minus-3 rating in his first five games back with the Reign to a plus-5 rating over his most three games, Clarke slowly looks to be returning to the player everybody saw earlier in the season.
“Don’t forget, there’s probably been a lot on his mind too,” Sturm quickly pointed out when we asked about his talented rearguard. “He probably thought, ‘That’s it!’ after scoring his OT goal in Boston. Then, all the sudden, he’s back here. He understands there are a few things [to consider] right now — some other guys might be playing better [with the Kings], they probably didn’t want him to just play six minutes a night, etc. I think that’s the biggest reason why he’s here, and he’s going to get a lot of minutes until somebody probably gets hurt or something like that. He’s probably going to stay here for a bit, but he will be fine. I think he accepts and knows what’s going on. He has to be patient and he has to perform here too with us. There were a little bit of ups and downs with him, but lately, he’s been the old Clarkie.”
Sturm went on to say that situations like this is all the more reason why it’s important to develop strong relationships with players these days. That way, when it’s time to have difficult conversations, they trust what is being communicated to them.
“Tell them what’s going on,” said the former NHL player turned coach. “I’m just a delivery guy. I’m trying to tell Clarkie [the message from management] in my own words, and also that we need him.”
On the goaltending front, veteran Aaron Dell is expected to get the start tonight. In his last six starts for the Reign he’s posted a .943 save percentage while accumulating a 5-0-1 record. For most of his pro career, Dell was part of the San Jose organization. It will be the first time facing his former club since signing with Ontario earlier this year.
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. BARRACUDA
Chromiak – Tynan – Hodgson
Ward – Thomas – Madden
Pavlychev – Helenius – Doty
Young – Pinelli – Francis
Hicketts – Clarke
Connauton – Santini
Nousiainen – Wylie
Portillo (starter)
Dell
Other roster options include: (F) N/A and (D) Inamoto, Krygier
Injured: Fagemo (day to day), Hudon (out several weeks), Lee (skating, looking at late March return), Rowe (likely to miss remainder of regular season)
Puck drop is scheduled for 7pm Pacific Time and the game can be viewed on AHL TV and KCAL 9.
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