Reign Game 1 Preview – Big Game Feel + Copley’s Value, Iron Men Gawdin and Studnicka

WHO: Ontario Reign vs. San Jose Barracuda (Series Tied 0-0)
WHAT: 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs – Round 1, Game 1
WHEN: Thursday, April 24 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: AHLTV on FloHockey – AUDIO: ESPN LA App / Reign Radio – TWITTER: @ShafReign & @OntarioReign

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Reign begin the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs Thursday night, kicking off a best-of-3 series with the San Jose Barracuda with Game 1 of the Pacific Division First Round at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Ontario won five of the eight matchups against San Jose during the regular-season series, posting a record of 5-3-0. Seven of the eight meetings were decided in regulation, with the lone exception coming on Dec. 15 when the Reign earned a shootout win at Toyota Arena. Ontario’s scoring has been evenly distributed in the series, with Martin Chromiak (5-2-7) and Charles Hudon (1-6=7) each recording seven points, while Riley Walsh had a three-point outing in the Reign’s most recent win at SJ on April 12 and finished with six points in the series on two goals and four assists. Aatu Jamsen was also at his best against the Cuda, potting four of his seven goals from his rookie season against San Jose.

REIGN VITALS: Ontario completed its regular season on Saturday night, suffering a 5-3 loss to Abbotsford in Game #72 of the 2024-25 year. They then had a day away from the rink Sunday before beginning playoff preparations Monday morning at Toyota Sports Performance Center. The first day of the week was a relatively normal practice day, but things ramped up Tuesday with meetings and video sessions on what to expect from San Jose. Although many players were given another day away from the ice to focus on their preparation, the full group was back at it on Wednesday in El Segundo, setting up today’s Game 1.

The LA Kings recalled Pheonix Copley early in the week and he was on the ice with them Monday and Tuesday before being reassigned back to the Reign on Wednesday. In his place, 18-year-old Carter George skated with the NHL club during their morning run through before Game 2 and served as the emergency backup vs. Edmonton last night.

As far as the rest of the roster goes, the Reign appear to be close to full health, with Marco Sturm saying after Saturday’s game that he hoped forward Charles Hudon and defender Angus Booth, who were out of the lineup that night, would be ready to go when the postseason began. The only members of the roster who have remained sidelined leading into the playoffs are defender Cole Krygier and goaltender Erik Portillo, who have both been unavailable since February 17, as well as Jamsen, who last played in SJ a week and a half ago.

Ontario mixed up its lineup for the final game of the regular season with some of those aforementioned players unavailable. Taylor Ward, who scored in his NHL debut with the Kings earlier in the week, got promoted to play alongside top center Glenn Gawdin and Martin Chromiak for the night, while Francesco Pinelli worked with two rookie wingers that had just joined the team earlier in the week in Koehn Ziemmer and Jared Wright. In addition, Caleb Jones and Jack Millar were reunited on the back end, as were Jakub Dvořák and Reilly Walsh.

There will be some tough decisions for Sturm and his staff when it comes to the lineup up front. With Hudon back in the mix, it should be interesting to see whether he’ll move back up with Gawdin and Chromiak, or whether he’ll be utilized to complement a different line. Rookie Kaleb Lawrence was at his best over the past two weeks and certainly made a case for more playing time with goals in three straight games to end the year. He may end up being a key piece in the middle between heavier wingers Shawn Element and Jacob Doty, who have been constant all year with physicality and toughness, something that will be important against the Barracuda.

BARRACUDA VITALS: This season’s San Jose team is the first to qualify for the postseason since the 2018-19 campaign. That doesn’t mean they don’t have their fair share of skaters with playoff experience, however, as both forward Andrew Poturalski, who led the AHL in scoring for the third time in his career with 73 points in 59 games, and defender Jimmy Schuldt are fresh off back-to-back Calder Cup Finals appearances with Coachella Valley. Poturalski is a two-time league champion, winning in 2019 with the Charlotte Checkers and again in 2022 with the Chicago Wolves.

If he’s healthy, it’s safe to expect that Yaroslav Askarov will get the Game 1 start in net for San Jose. The former first round selection by Nashville in 2020 is entering his third go-around in the Calder Cup Playoffs after totaling 17 postseason appearances with Milwaukee over the past two years. In 22 AHL games this season since being traded to the San Jose organization over the summer, Askarov has an 11-9-1 record, a goals-against average of 2.45 and a save percentage at 0.923. The Barracuda’s other two options in net are Gabriel Carriere, who has a 2-2-0 record against the Reign in four contests with just eight goals allowed for a GAA of 2.16, and Aaron Dell, who was with Ontario a year ago but has only seen time in 10 AHL contests this season.

For reference, here’s how the Cuda lined up in their final regular season game against the Calgary Wranglers on Sunday afternoon, which they lost 4-0 –

The boys are ready to go 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ea2jEvhaJT

— x – SJ Barracuda (@sjbarracuda) April 20, 2025

After Poturalski, who tied for the lead among Barracuda skaters against Ontario with six points this season, other standout forwards include top prospect Filip Bystedt, who had a goal and five assists vs. the Reign, as well as Danil Gushchin (3-2=5) and Ethan Cardwell (2-3=5), who both ended with five points in the series.

Storyline of the Day – Big Game Feel
So here we are, getting set to showcase AHL hockey on the biggest of stages, Crypto.com Arena. A venue where the Kings and Lakers both earned home games to begin their respective postseasons. The reality is that no one asked for this. Not the players, coaches, or the staff. Certainly not the fans, who have come out and supported the Reign all season at Toyota Arena. But with Ontario’s third-place finish in the Pacific Division, they earned home ice. And the ice in Ontario wasn’t available, so this was the next best thing.

It won’t be the same, but there are many perks of playing in an NHL building, and Crypto.com Arena is a first class facility. It represents where everyone in the AHL is trying to get to. Multiple players from this year’s Reign roster have found a home there with the Kings, including Jacob Moverare, who began the year with Ontario and played 11 games before earning a full-time role with LA. Last night, Moverare made his Stanley Cup Playoff debut in the Kings’ 6-2 win over Edmonton. Jeff Malott was a leader for the Reign this season, wearing a letter on his shoulder and scoring 51 points in 61 games with 23 goals and 28 assists, but his home is now in downtown LA after earning a spot in the Kings lineup during the final 12 games of the NHL regular season.

Now those among the Reign group that have yet to make their NHL debut will get to see up close what it’s like to play in the big leagues. And it’ll come when it matters most, the playoffs.

“I think it’s exciting,” said Reign captain Joe Hicketts after Wednesday’s practice. “I think anyone playing here wants to be up with the Kings, they want to progress into the NHL and that’s where the Kings play so I think it will have that excitement, it will still feel like a home game, we’ll have our fans there, we’re in LA, but it’s something we can’t think about too much. Once the game starts, it’s about getting to our game as fast as we can and playing every period with a playoff mindset.”

The home ice advantage is earned through the regular season, but this best-of-3 series is a short one, with the loser of tonight’s game facing the reality of an elimination game on Saturday. That’s why there’s no time to waste on distractions. As Hicketts alluded to, it’s still a three-period hockey game, no matter the location.

Sturm had similar thoughts on the opportunity to play where he once coached as a former assistant on the Kings’ bench.

“We would love to play in our home barn in Ontario, because we’re so used to it,” Sturm explained. “On the other side of it, it should be exciting to play at the big rink and hopefully it’s going to be in our favor. It’s going to be different and hopefully we can stick with our game we played all year long.”

One fortunate part of the situation is that with the Reign based out of El Segundo for daily practices, everyone lives closer to LA which means they’ll all have a shorter drive getting downtown than they’re used to when they head east to Ontario.

Regardless, it’s not what anyone wanted or expected, but finding a way to get a few wins in a building that’s been very kind to the Kings this year will extend the team’s season and bring more hockey to Ontario this spring with no other building conflicts on the horizon for the foreseeable future.

3 To Watch For –
– It wouldn’t be a stretch to call goaltender Pheonix Copley the most valuable player on the Reign’s roster during the regular season. After starting the year in a timeshare with one of the team’s best goalie prospects, Erik Portillo, who stepped up to lead Ontario in the playoffs last season, he’s been thrust into a starting role down the stretch. The North Pole, Alaska native picked up the ball and carried it right where the Reign needed him to, becoming the backbone of the team as a workhorse, starting in 20 of Ontario’s last 23 games dating back to Feb. 19.

In that two-month span, Copley played over 1,200 minutes and saw 533 shots on goal, both the most of any goalie in the AHL during that time, while posting a goals-against average of 2.61. He won 10 of those starts, increasing his win total to a career-high 24 games. Copley’s 42 games played overall are the most he’s ever had in an AHL season during his 10-year career.

More recently, the goaltender has allowed two or less goals in six of his last 10 appearances in the last month, showing that even as the workload increased, he was able to continue his high level of play.

He’s earned the opportunity to be Ontario’s game one starter tonight with his steady presence, calm demeanor and most importantly, his ability to come up with big saves all season. I for one am excited to see what he can do for the Reign at this time of the year.

– Two Ontario forwards, Glenn Gawdin and Jack Studnicka, were the only players on the roster that played in all 72 of the team’s games this season. That’s a feat worth acknowledging, as the schedule of AHL hockey is grueling, relentless and lengthy, without many breaks.

Not surprisingly, both of those individuals were valuable leaders to the group all year. For Gawdin, he set career-highs in almost every scoring category, netting 26 goals and assisting on 36 others for 62 points which ranked in the top-10 of the league this season. The Richmond, B.C. native also had a team-high plus-23 rating while centering the club’s top line alongside Charles Hudon, Jeff Malott, Samuel Fagemo or Martin Chromiak and totaled three shorthanded goals, four game-winning goals and a league-best five shootout goals with a 100% success rate in the skill session. No matter who was on his wing, they produced, and that’s a testament to what Gawdin did in the middle of the ice.

For Studnicka, he fell a few points short of his career-best when he had 49 with the Providence Bruins as a rookie during 2019-20, but his consistency was certainly evident. Also a valuable center for Ontario, Studnicka eclipsed the 40-point mark for the second time, earning 45 on 16 goals and 29 assists. His five power play goals tied for second on the team and he played a valuable role on the penalty kill each night, which finished 10th in the league with an 83.5% success rate.

After the regular season ended on Saturday night, Sturm gave recognition to both of his iron men forwards:

“They’ve both been great. Both of them were new and no one really knew them off the ice. If you look at them now, they’re both really good leaders, very respectful, come to work every day and good for them to play every game. It also shows their character and I think the love for that team, they’re just having a good time and it’s nice to see.”

– Despite the venue change, the Reign’s broadcast channels will remain the same for the postseason, with all games being broadcast live on AHLTV via FloHockey, as well as the ESPN LA App and the Ontario Reign App.

Myself and Paige Capistran will have all the action for you beginning at 7 p.m. tonight, as well as on Saturday when the puck drops one hour earlier at 6 p.m.

Latest on the Reign Check
This week we took a few minutes to recap the Reign’s regular season in audio form, as Capistran and I took a look back at the 72-game slate before the postseason run begins tonight. The latest full-length episode also includes our picks for the AHL’s end of season awards.

 

In case that wasn’t enough for you, today’s Gameday Forecast dives deeper into the matchup with San Jose, with post-practice audio from Sturm and captain Hicketts.

 

The Reign and Barracuda drop the puck for Game 1 later tonight in LA!