Reign Practice 2/17 – Recent Transactions, Injury Update + Consistent Play With a Stretch Run Looming

Insiders, the Ontario Reign were on the ice for their second straight practice in El Segundo at Toyota Sports Performance Center Thursday, preparing for a home-and-home weekend series against the San Diego Gulls Saturday and Sunday.

Following a ‘Development Day’ led by the LA Kings Development Staff on Wednesday, that was once again the priority focus Thursday, with many skaters getting additional ice time with the development coaches prior to the team’s 1 p.m. practice.

Today’s skate was focused on defensive zone coverage and play without the puck as well as some special teams work before a series with the Gulls, a team that Ontario hasn’t seen since Jan. 8 when Samuel Fagemo scored to secure a win in overtime.

“In our video session and today’s meeting, we touched on having pride in defending and being a little bit harder to play against in our own zone,” Hajt said. “We identified that as an area we want to improve on as a team and the group recognized that as well and as a staff, we thought they delivered on it.”

Ontario is coming off a weekend series in Stockton that saw them earn three out of four points before struggling in a Monday night contest in Bakersfield against the Condors where they lost 5-1. Having back-to-back games with five goals allowed made the defensive side of the game a priority for the Reign this week.

“It’s something that doesn’t get you the glory of scoring a big goal but it’s obviously just as important,” Hajt said. “If we can cut our goals against down, we feel with our offense we have an ability to put the puck in the net so it’s just going to help our game and it’s something that we’ve got to continue to work on.”

Since that Monday game in Bakersfield, two transactions have cut down the team’s roster size. First, defender Jacob Moverare was recalled by the LA Kings prior to their game on Tuesday evening against Edmonton. Moverare is now with the Kings on their current road trip to Vegas and Arizona. Today Ontario further trimmed its roster with an AHL trade, sending forward Adam Johnson to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in exchange for future considerations. Johnson was a key member of the Reign’s offensive group down the stretch last season but couldn’t contribute consistently this year. He was seen in a variety of roles throughout the lineup but never found a consistent home. As someone who has significant experience in the AHL with 125 points in 227 career games, Johnson could be a nice addition to the Phantoms who are in need of some help in the race for the postseason in the Atlantic Division.

On the injury front, Ontario is close to seeing the return of defender Marcus Phillips, who has been out of the lineup since suffering an ailment in a win over San Jose on Jan. 31. Phillips has been a full participant in practice each of the past two days and had been playing some of his best hockey before going down, scoring points in three of his last four games including a two-assist night where he amassed a +3 rating on the evening he was injured. If Phillips is available, he would be one of three options to replace Moverare in the lineup on Saturday, including Christian Kasastul and Andrew Nielsen, who has yet to make his Reign debut after joining the team on a PTO deal last week.

Goaltender Garret Sparks, who left the last meeting with San Diego on Jan. 8 due to injury, has also returned to the Toyota Sports Performance Center ice. Sparks has not played in a game in over a month and is not yet ready to participate fully in practice, but reached the point in his rehab where he can start skating again. The Reign were also without Alex Turcotte Thursday, who missed Monday’s game against Bakersfield due to injury.

Notes –

Consistency Paying Off For Anderson-Dolan
With an assist in Monday’s loss to Bakersfield, Jaret Anderson-Dolan has posted a point in six straight games for the second time this season. The 22-year-old had a scorching hot January, posting points in six of nine games, and closing the month out with his first professional hat trick. Anderson-Dolan has continued his success into February, scoring goals in both of Ontario’s games in Grand Rapids to begin the month before adding a goal and two assists in Stockton last weekend. His consistency is something Hajt noted when speaking about his recent play.

“He’s been terrific and good for him for having that streak but he’s rounding out his offensive game,” Hajt said. “He’s been a key contributor to the power play unit that’s been so successful, but he plays a 200-foot game as well. He has an ability to play both sides of the puck and he’s just been very consistent.”

18 of Anderson-Dolan’s 32 points have come via the power play this season, with 10 goals and eight assists. Martin Frk and TJ Tynan have gotten a lot of credit for how good Ontario’s power play has been, but Anderson-Dolan has been a huge factor as well. According to Hajt, everything starts with the way he conducts himself off the ice and prepares for each day.

“He’s a true professional,” Hajt said. “He comes to the rink every day with an idea in mind of what he wants to do, how he wants to play and how he wants to get better. I don’t think there’s a lot that he’s been doing differently lately other than that he spends time on his game before and after practice. He’s always in the gym, he’s taking care of his body and his conditioning and he eats well and does all the little things to allow him to be consistent.”

The obvious goal for Anderson-Dolan is to get back to where he was last season, in the NHL with the Kings, but for right now, he’s been a key piece to Ontario’s success and a respected member of the locker room.

“When you talk to him he’s calm, but you can tell that he’s a smart guy and there’s a lot of respect for him in that room,” Hajt said. “He has that leadership and when he speaks, guys listen because he understands the game, both sides of the puck and that’s definitely a side of him that we feel he has and he’s showing it on a daily basis. Other guys are taking notice of it too so it’s helping our group and hopefully he continues down that path.”

Valiant Villalta
Another member of the Reign roster that has been increasingly consistent this season is goaltender Matt Villalta. His most recent start in Stockton, where he helped Ontario earn a point with 44 saves on 49 shots prior to a shootout loss, was the only time since the calendar flipped to 2022 that Villalta allowed more than two goals in a start. He’s picked up five wins in that time and improved his overall record on the season to 15-3-4, which gives him one of the best winning percentages in the AHL. Villalta, according to Hajt, is another player that uses a strict preparation routine to get himself ready for a heavy workload on the ice.

“He has a plan, he has a focus with Matt Millar our goalie coach and they do a really nice job together preparing for each game,” Hajt said. “It’s a lot about routine. He has a routine that he does every day and every game day and he’s very focused but consistency’s important.”

Now up over 1,300 minutes on the season, Villalta has surpassed his previous career-high for minutes played in a campaign. But he’s seemingly gotten better as the season continues and his save percentage (0.917) is climbing the league’s ranks.

“He’s been able to string a bunch of starts together here and been consistent,” Hajt said. “You think about the first night in Stockton and how well he played. We were able to get a big win in that building and it had a lot to do with Matty. There’s a lot of really positive things going on with him right now and we look for it to continue going forward.”

Hajt also mentioned how good Villalta has been in key moments of the game, making big stops when the team’s needed a bailout save. That’s something hard to quantify in numbers or statistics, but it speaks to the team’s confidence in his play.

“Overall, there’s definitely a calmness to him,” Hajt said. “You can tell he’s taking charge in the net more, in key moments of the game he’s sticking to his structure as a player and he plays the puck really well. When he comes out, he’s been making good decisions with the puck which is an important part of our breakouts. But he’s been able to make some unbelievable saves and more timely saves where we’ve needed it and that’s really important for the team.”

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going
As we start to get into late February, the so called “dog days” of the season are here. The All-Star break is over, and Ontario has a busy schedule that will take them through the remainder of the season. So far, the team has surpassed every test that’s been tossed their way, holding one of the best records in the AHL and surely in contention for a division crown. But one thing that may separate them from the rest down the stretch is the ability to win close games, or to continue to secure points when they might not be at their best. The Reign are going to have many upcoming nights where they’ll face a team fighting for their playoff lives, or for their season. Having the ability to put away teams below them in the standings is not going to come easy, but every night it will bring a new challenge.

“Those moments of being in tight games, we can’t deviate from what we do and how we do it,” Hajt said. “We’ve got to be comfortable in those situations, whether it’s a one-goal game or a tie game, or maybe a game where things haven’t gone our way and we haven’t played our best but we’re still in it and we’ve still got to find a way to win, those are important lessons coming down the stretch that we need to be dialed in on.”

This year, Ontario has had a confidence about them that has sustained them through whatever roadblocks or adversity they’ve faced. That will again be tested in the next two months and the Reign’s final standing will be determined by how they handle a busy stretch to close out the regular season.

“We have to have an overall confidence that we can win,” Hajt said. “It’s sticking to what we do, making sure that we’re dialed in on that and not deviating, getting the job done in those types of games.”

The Reign have one more practice day Friday and a morning skate Saturday before departing for San Diego. We’ll have coverage of the series with the Gulls throughout the weekend here on LAKI!