Don’t look now, but the Ontario Reign have won four straight games and are one of the hottest teams in the Pacific Division. Seven wins in their past 10 outings has them playing their best hockey of the season; and they’ve largely been doing it without Andre Lee, Sammy Helenius, Jacob Moverare, and Erik Portillo — as all four have spent most of that stretch up with the Kings.
Perhaps even more impressive is coach Marco Sturm has guided his club to more regulation wins (RW) than all but the Calgary Wranglers. Something the Reign have managed to do in four fewer games played, as well.
Tuesday night will see the Texas Stars visit Toyota Arena for the second time in recent days. Ontario downed their Central Division foe 4-0 last Friday. Rookies Aatu Jamsen and Kaleb Lawrence both scored in that game. However, indications are, the latter is likely to sit out tonight in favor of Jacob Doty (who hasn’t played since Nov. 15 at Colorado).
Seeing the two clubs faceoff has a bit of a throwback feel too. Prior to this season, they last faced each twice during 2018-19, which came the season after Texas downed Ontario in the Calder Cup playoffs. That was probably the best team coach Mike Stothers had when he was behind the Reign bench. Had they won that series, there’s a good chance Ontario would have given Toronto all they could handle in the Finals.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda… we’ll never know.
Back to reality and the present, most are expecting Pheonix Copley back in net. He’s coming off a stellar weekend. After stopping 52 of 53 shots faced over a pair of starts and posting a .981 save percentage, the veteran netminder was named AHL Player of the Week yesterday. Of course, should Sturm opt not to have Copley start his third game in four days, Jacob Ingham is patiently waiting in the wings.
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. STARS
If there are any key changes during pregame warm-ups, this article will be updated.
Hudon – Gawdin – Malott
Madden – Studnicka – Fagemo
Chromiak – Pinelli – Ward
Element – Jamsen – Doty
Hicketts – Millar
Booth – Rowe
Dvorak – Walsh
Copley (starter)
Ingham
Other roster options include: (F) Lawrence (D) Krygier
Injured: (D) Parker-Jones
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.
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