The Reign return home on Sunday afternoon aiming to build upon their recent offensive resurgence. With a pair of wins earlier this week in Tucson, they continue to climb up the Pacific Division standings. Now in fourth place and looking to bank more points, Ontario will host the visiting Henderson Silver Knights later this afternoon at Toyota Arena.
March began with coach Marco Sturm’s club not playing up to his usual standards. Having dropped five straight to start the month, perhaps the tide has now turned — as they enter play today coming off a pair of wins in back-to-back games against the Roadrunners. Last time out, Kings prospects Aatu Jamsen and Francesco Pinelli scored goals, with the latter’s standing as the game-winning goal after he was moved up to the top line for the final frame of regulation.
For that series, the Reign were again without goaltender Erik Portillo, who has been injured since February 17. From what we’re hearing, not only will he miss today’s game as well, he’s likely to remain sidelined for at least another week or so. This means he’ll miss the upcoming road trip to Texas and Iowa, with his return date currently targeted for March 25.
In Portillo’s absence, veteran Pheonix Copley has taken the full-time burden in net and has done a reasonable job overall. If anything, the play in front of him has perhaps been more concerning. Some of that starts on the blue line, where the team has been without first-year standout Angus Booth. A fourth round draft pick of the Kings in 2022, Booth has become one of Sturm’s most trusted defenders. His return from injury continues to be a slow process, with no return date established just yet. However, there is hope he will return before the playoffs.
No major lineup changes are expected for today. Up front, we’ll have to see if Sturm sticks with Pinelli on the top line or returns him to a bottom six role for Ontario’s first meeting with Henderson since a 1-0 loss in mid-January.
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. SILVER KNIGHTS
Malott – Pinelli – Fagemo
Hudon – Gawdin – Chromiak
Lee – Studnicka – Jamsen
Element – Lawrence – Ward
Hicketts – Cecconi
Jones – Millar
Dvorak – Walsh
Copley
McKay
Other roster options include: (F) Doty, Olson and (D) Booth, Krygier, Rowe and (G) Portillo
Puck drop is scheduled for 3:00 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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