
Saturday evening in San Jose, coach Marco Sturm will guide his Reign team for their final regular-season road game, facing off in a rematch with the Barracuda.
It was a tough outing for Ontario on Saturday night in Northern California. After striking first with the game’s opening goal, their offense went quiet for the remainder of the contest, and they ultimately fell 4-1.
That was yesterday, though. Just 24 hours later, Sturm and the Reign are likely filled with optimism as a pair of high-profile Kings prospects are scheduled to make their AHL debuts tonight.
Goaltender Carter George is expected to start between the pipes, after an outstanding second half of the OHL season, essentially leading Owen Sound into the playoffs there. Even as an 18-year-old rookie with Ontario, nobody has concerns about the young netminder straight into the fire. Ontario is in their own battle for playoff positioning and a win tonight would clinch home ice for the Reign — making this a (somewhat) a high-stakes debut, and a perfect test of how George handles the pressure. Given his performance with Team Canada at the most recent World Juniors, he should have little problems rising to the occasion.
More on George can be found in this interview he did with Mayor’s Manor earlier this week. Among the topics covered is his lifelong love for the Kings, how he chose his number, and what he’s expecting now that he’s in Ontario.
Speaking of debuts, defenseman Otto Salin is also expected to make his first AHL appearance in tonight’s game. It’ll be interesting to see how Salin adjusts to the smaller North American rink, especially coming from the larger ice surfaces in the Finnish league.
Unlike Geroge, who is only here for the balance of the season (before returning to the OHL next year), Salin has signed a three-year contract and is in California for the long haul. His season to date has been marked with an increase of offense, to round out his overall game.
Forward Aatu Jamsen, another player from Finland on Ontario’s roster, has had an up and down rookie season thus far. He didn’t play last night but could possibly draw back in for the rematch. Perhaps Jamsen and Salin can help each other adapt to playing in America, both on and off the ice.
Coming into this weekend, captain Joe Hicketts and Angus Booth appeared to be getting closer to a return on Ontario’s blueline. However, neither played last night and their status for this evening remains uncertain.
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. BARRACUDA
Should there be any key changes during warmups, alignment below will be updated.
Hudon – Gawdin – Chromiak
Lee – Studnicka – Fagemo
Jamsen – Pinelli – Ward
Element – Lawrence – Doty
Jones – Millar
Walsh – Salin
Dvorak – Cecconi
George
Copley
Other roster options include: (F) Olson, Singleton and (D) Booth, Hicketts, Salin and (G) Ingham
Injured: (D) Booth, Krygier and (G) Portillo
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.
MORE LA KINGS NEWS:
Follow @mayorNHL

Lead photo by Megan Sanders
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please remember to include a link to www.MayorsManor.com
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-522840723937225840-1’); });
Continue reading...