After completing a week-long road trip against teams outside the Pacific Division, coach Marco Sturm’s Ontario Reign return home Wednesday night to face a familiar opponent they have performed well against this season: the Tucson Roadrunners.
Ontario finished their Central Division jaunt last week with an even 2-2 record. On Sunday, they delivered an offensive clinic against the Iowa Wild, securing a dominant 7-4 victory. Of those seven tallies, two of them came from winger Jeff Malott, who was called up to the Kings earlier today — in response to Tanner Jeannot suffering an injury against the New York Rangers.
Malott has been a consistent presence for Sturm’s group since being acquired last summer; appearing in every game this season. With the 28-year-old forward’s call-up (for what will most likely include ‘use in case of emergency’ type services with the Kings), Sturm will need now to get creative with his next move. For most of 2025, Malott has served as left wing on Ontario’s top line.
Kings prospect Martin Chromiak would appear to be an ideal candidate to step into that role tonight. Having seen a significant uptick in his offense recently — including six points (2 goals, 4 assists) over the past five games — the Slovakia native is also coming off a night were he tallied three assists in the aforementioned game vs. the Wild.
If that’s the direction Sturm opts to go in, he’ll also then need to fill a hole created in his bottom-six, where Chromiak had been playing. First-year pro Kaleb Lawrence was able to draw back in at center last time out and he could be joined by Jacob Doty on his right side given the likely shift of fellow rookie Aatu Jamsen being bumped up to RW3. If all of this falls into place — and again, nothing is confirmed at game time, due to a very fluid situation over the past eight hours — seeing Lawrence and Doty on the same line could be a nice deterrent for the Roadrunners typical physicality.
Pheonix Copley is expected to once again get the start in net for Ontario. He surrendered four goals on 28 shots in a 4-2 loss last Saturday in Iowa. During his last home start at Toyota Arena, Copley allowed just two goals, securing a 3-2 shootout victory.
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. ROADRUNNERS
Chromiak – Pinelli – Fagemo
Lee – Studnicka – Ward
Hudon – Gawdin – Jamsen
Element – Lawrence – Doty
Hicketts – Cecconi
Jones – Millar
Dvorak – Rowe
Copley
Ingham
Other roster options include: (F) Olson and (D) Walsh
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
Gameday graphic via ALoImages
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...
