Coming into the 2025-26 season, nobody was quite sure what to make of the Ontario Reign. They had a new head coach in Andrew Lord — his first AHL gig — and a roster that had massive turnover from the season prior.
Through six games, the results have been very positive. Sunday’s 5-2 victory in Abbotsford marked Ontario’s second straight win over the defending Calder Cup Champions and pushed their overall record to 4-1-1.
Lord guided his team to a win over the Canucks on Friday by the same score; yet the key contributors were different both nights — showing some diversity in their newly configured attack.
After giving up a goal midway through the first frame on Sunday, the Reign went to work. When Kings prospect Franky Pinelli found the back of the net midway through the second period, he gave his club a commanding 4-1 lead in the contest. Jared Wright later added an empty net goal to cap off the scoring. It was his first AHL goal, one that he’ll likely remember for non-conventual reasons. Although it wasn’t a highlight reel masterpiece that he can brag to friends and family about, it went in and that’s all that counts.
In goal, Erik Portillo returned after sitting out Friday’s contest but didn’t see a lot of work. He only faced 15 shots en route to his second win of the season.
First-year pro Koehn Ziemmer saw his first action of the year, playing right wing on Ontario’s fourth line. The 20-year-old forward tied for the team lead in shots, putting four pucks on net.
As a team, the Reign recorded 31 shots on Sunday after posting 26 in Friday’s series opener. That gave them 57 for the weekend, after only notching 78 SOG in their first four games combined — something Lord spoke extensively about heading into the weekend. Message delivered.
Another area to keep an eye on is their starts. Ontario has only scored first in one of their six games. While their record is stellar, trailing in five of the six games is likely making things a little harder than it needs to be. Let’s see if they get out of the blocks first on Wednesday when they take on the Silver Knights in Henderson. Lord and the Reign will be looking for a bit of payback too, as that’s the only team to beat them in regulation thus far this season.
How about some more stats to wrap things up? Overall, Ontario’s 3.50 goals per game average ranks eighth in the league. After starting three different goaltenders in their first six games, the Reign have given up an average of 2.50 goals per game — also good for eighth best in the AHL.
Full game highlights can be viewed here:
Pregame notes and lineups can be found in the article linked below.
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