Debuting a lineup full of fresh faces on Saturday, the Ontario Reign struggled to find a collective cohesion and were downed by the visiting San Jose Barracuda 5-0 at Toyota Arena.
In the 2024-25 AHL season opener, six players made their Reign debut, including defensive prospect Angus Booth. He was playing his first professional game after four seasons in the QMJHL. The 20-year-old fourth round pick (2022 NHL Draft) skated alongside team captain Joe Hicketts in his inaugural game and immediately drew the attention of head coach Marco Sturm.
“I liked him; he played solid,” said Ontario’s bench boss. “[Booth] was probably one of our best ‘D’ out there – probably the best, I thought. No mistakes, but he showed us that all preseason long.”
Sturm also credited the team’s overall poor play to “tightness”, which he anticipated with 14 new players added to his team over the offseason — due to a combination of several Kings prospects graduating to the NHL and a handful of other prospects coming over from the junior ranks.
On the other side of the ice, Ontario was facing highly-touted goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov, who had high hopes of starting the season with the San Jose Sharks. A former first round pick with Nashville, he turned aside all 22 shots, earning a shutout in his first game with his new organization.
Handling the Reins: There’s no question goaltending is one of the top stories to follow in Ontario this season. With the Kings NHL rotation fairly set, their AHL affiliate is harboring the talents of young Erik Portillo and the rehabilitating Phoenix Copley. With the former, this will be his second season and is expected to be a key steppingstone in his eventual journey. Meanwhile, the latter is returning to the AHL after what was shaping up to be another successful stint with LA before suffering a major knee injury last season. Sturm has targeted Portillo as his number one goaltender despite the 24-year-old allowing five goals on 23 shots against San Jose.
Introducing the New ‘A’: Ontario featured their newest captain when Hicketts donned the ‘C’ on opening night. He’ll serve as captain alongside alternates Charles Hudon and newly-acquired Jeff Malott. The 28-year-old left winger was signed over the summer after having played four seasons with the Manitoba Moose. He’s hard to miss on the ice, as his 6-foot-5 frame typically stands out, along with being a frequent scoring threat — as evidenced by his three consecutive 20-plus goal seasons. In addition, he’s a physical threat who is not afraid to step up for his teammates in any situation. Over the past two seasons, he’s averaged 74 penalty minutes and picked up right where he left off. In his Reign debut, Malott was charged with a 10-minute misconduct when things began to boil on the ice.
Special Teams: Ontario went 0-for-6 on the power play and 2-for-5 on the penalty kill. Thus, Sturm and his coaching staff will continue to fine tune this season’s new-look units.
Up Next: The Reign face-off in the second game of their back-to-back weekend series with the Barracuda on Sunday afternoon. Puck drop is set for 3:00 pm Pacific Time at Toyota Arena and can be viewed on FloHockey.
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Lead photo by Thomas Salvatierra
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