For the third time in 10 days, the Ontario Reign and Calgary Wranglers will face off on Sunday evening at Toyota Arena, concluding their four-game season series. This matchup also coincides with Manchester Monarchs Night, during which the organization will honor members of the 2015 Calder Cup Championship team (more on that in a moment).
In their most recent encounter, during a two-game set in Canada last weekend, the Reign secured a 4-3 overtime victory over the Wranglers via a Francesco Pinelli game-winning goal. Entering play today, there is a three-way tie for first place in the Pacific Division; with Calgary, Ontario, and Colorado all sitting at 63 points. However, the Reign hold the highest points percentage of the trio (.656) and have played the fewest number of games thus far.
Tonight also marks the tail end of a back-to-back set for the Reign, as they’re coming off a 3-1 loss to the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday — a game that ended Ontario’s 7-game point streak. The lone Reign goal came from Kings prospect Martin Chromiak with just 20 seconds remaining in regulation.
Just prior to game time on Saturday, defenseman Angus Booth was a late scratch, and he’s not expected to play tonight. As discussed here, the rookie blueliner has been one of the team’s most consistent and reliable rearguards. Coach Marco Sturm has shown tremendous confidence in the QMJHL product going all the way back to Development Camp in July.
Already without goalie Erik Portillo and forward Sammy Fagemo, the Reign will need to piece things together for a big tilt vs. the Wranglers. Among Sturm’s pregame decisions will be what to do in net, either go with Pheonix Copley for a second straight night or turn things over to Dryden McKay, who has spent all season in the ECHL. Jakob Doty drawing in at forward remains a possibility, as well. Fagemo was a full participant at practice on Friday, yet his status remains TBD.
Meanwhile, the Wranglers feature red hot forward Martin Frk up front, who has nine goals in his last nine games. Reign fans will certainly remember the name, as Frk played multiple seasons with Ontario and was even called up to the Kings in 2022 — scoring a clutch third period goal to tie the game with just 30 seconds left against the Florida Panthers.
Amidst the actual game at hand, tonight’s contest will also feature a special celebration of the 2015 Monarchs team. During their final year in Manchester, before relocating to Ontario, the club secured an AHL championship with a team that included Adrian Kempe, Michael Mersch, Vinent LoVerde, JF Berube, and Paul Bissonnette. Coached by Mike Stothers, they steamrolled through the league in 2014-15. Many of their tales were shared on Kings Of The Podcast over the past few weeks. Be sure to give their interviews a listen here:
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. WRANGLERS
Malott – Gawdin – Hudon
Lee – Studnicka – Ward
Madden – Helenius – Chromiak
Element – Pinelli – Jamsen
Hicketts – Millar
Booth – Rowe
Dvorak – Walsh
Copley
McKay
Other roster options include: (F) Doty, Fagemo and (D) Krebs, Krygier, and (G) Portillo
Puck drop is scheduled for 5:00 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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