Reign Game 2 Preview – Backs Against The Wall + Power Play Production, Previous Playoff Success, Fan Support In LA

WHO: Ontario Reign vs. San Jose Barracuda (SJ Leads Series 1-0)
WHAT: 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs – Round 1, Game 2
WHEN: Saturday, April 26 @ 6:00 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: After a disappointing Game 1 on Thursday, the Reign look to stave off elimination Saturday when they battle the San Jose Barracuda in Game 2 of a best-of-3 first round Calder Cup Playoff series at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Barracuda netminder Yaroslav Askarov posted his second shutout of the season against Ontario on Thursday, stopping all 17 shots that came his way to lead San Jose in a Game 1 win. Pavol Regenda scored the opening goal of the game, his third against the Reign this year as a member of the Cuda, while Filip Bystedt netted his second goal against Ontario and now leads San Jose with seven points in the season series (2-5=7). Pheonix Copley played in five of the eight regular season battles between the two teams before starting in Game 1 and has accrued over 350 minutes in goal vs. the Barracuda this season.

REIGN VITALS: The Reign had a full team practice yesterday in El Segundo and have a morning skate planned, which will most likely be optional, for Saturday morning. It’s safe to expect Copley will again get the opportunity in goal against San Jose tonight in a must-win game. Copley’s career Calder Cup Playoff numbers are impressive, holding a 2.09 goals-against average and a 0.935 save percentage in 18 contests. Thursday night’s outing was Copley’s first playoff appearance as a member of the Reign, with all 17 of his previous games coming with the Hershey Bears.

Ontario’s Game 1 lineup is listed below, for reference –

Tonight’s @ontarioreign projected lineup –

Hudon – Gawdin – Chromiak
Lee – Studnicka – Fagemo
Singleton – Pinelli – Ward
Element – Lawrence – Wright

Hicketts – Cecconi
Jones – Walsh
Booth – Salin

Copley
Ingham

— Jared Shafran (@ShafReign) April 25, 2025

It seems fair to at least expect some changes to the lineup for Game 2 after what we saw in the series opener on Thursday. Both Charles Hudon and Angus Booth were able to return to the lineup after missing the final regular season game of the year last Saturday. This, combined with the return of Tate Singleton, pushed Jacob Doty, Koehn Ziemmer and Jack Millar out of action.

In addition to the three names above, other options to enter the lineup in Game 2 for the Reign include Quinn Olson, Jakub Dvořák and Luke Rowe.

BARRACUDA VITALS: San Jose also held a team practice at Crypto.com Arena on Friday, in advance of Game 2 on Saturday where they will aim to advance to the Pacific Division Semifinals.

Musty tries the no-look pass! pic.twitter.com/sB3adBL2P5

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) April 25, 2025

Per Sheng Peng of SJ Hockey Now, both Danil Gushchin and Thomas Bordeleau were not present at the team’s skate. Gushchin warmed up prior to Game 1 but was unable to play due to an illness.

Gushchin could be available for Game 2, which would change San Jose’s forward configuration. In his absence, the team inserted Donavan Houle up front, who registered two shots on goal.

The Cuda are still without leading scorer Andrew Poturalski, who was named the AHL’s Les Cunningham Award winner as the league’s Most Valuable Player on Friday after leading the AHL in points for the third time in his career. Despite missing the final three weeks of the 2024-25 regular season, Poturalski led all AHL skaters with 73 points on 30 goals and 43 assists.

Storyline of the Day – Backs Against the Wall
There’s no other way around it: The Reign have their backs against the wall going into tonight’s matchup. With the current AHL postseason format consisting of a short, three-game opening round, the loser of the first contest is forced into a tough position. But if Ontario can keep from looking ahead and focus on winning a single game, it can build momentum, and fortune can change quickly.

Marco Sturm remained confident in his team despite a lackluster performance and result on Thursday, in large part because of how they’ve bounced back all season. In 28 games after a loss this season, Ontario went 18-8-2. Additionally, the Reign won all three games they played this year after losing to San Jose.

“The one thing about this group is they always have a good response,” Sturm said after Game 1. “This is done now. This is over and we’re going to move forward. This series is long from over and we want to take this series back to our home in Ontario.”

You don’t have to look that far back to see an example of the Reign’s ability to bounce back against the Barracuda. Earlier this month on April 11, Ontario was unable to build on an early lead and dropped a 4-1 decision in the Bay. The following night was a complete reversal, which featured a season-high three-point effort from defender Reilly Walsh and a perfect game from goaltender Carter George in his first pro appearance to blank San Jose 4-0 at Tech CU Arena.

When speaking after practice on Friday, defenseman Caleb Jones recalled a different example of his team’s resilience that they rebounded from.

“I think having a situation like that can help,” said Jones. “We’ve had some adversity all year and we had a meeting in Tucson about a month ago. We were in a bit of a rut and we said that come playoff time, we can lean back on this situation and say we came out of it and became stronger, so I think we’re going to be flying tomorrow night.”

Jones alluded to one of the team’s problems from Thursday, which was simply their skating. They went with a more speed, skill-focused lineup, but it didn’t work out, resulting in an inability to produce offense and consistent chances at the Barracuda net. Especially when it mattered most in the third, the Reign didn’t have many looks.

Another of Sturm’s beliefs, and he’s mentioned it whenever his team has struggled throughout his three-year tenure behind the team’s bench, is that the best players on the team need to be carrying the group forward.

That means tonight he’ll be looking to Jones, someone who receives the most ice time on the team, as well as his captain Joe Hicketts and the top-six scorers like Charles Hudon, Glenn Gawdin and Samuel Fagemo to lead the way out of this hole.

“The best players have to be the best players,” Sturm said Thursday night. “The older guys, they know they didn’t play well, they didn’t lead today. If you look at their team [San Jose], their best players were their best. From the defense, to the forwards, we were behind all game long and that was the game and there’s no other excuse.”

3 To Watch For –
– For starters, the Reign can look to their parent team in the Kings, and see the difference a successful power play is making for them in the postseason. It’s been evident that having a dangerous, threatening look on the man-advantage is a game-changer in the playoffs.

Especially with this being a short series, Ontario needs to get more from their skilled attackers when they get those opportunities. They went 0-for-5 in Game 1, including a momentum-killing four-minute double minor that was awarded just 21 seconds into the third period. The game was still scoreless at that point, and instead of taking advantage and jumping on the chance, the Cuda held the Reign without a shot on goal. To make matters worse, Fagemo took a slashing penalty a little more than a minute into the power play, which shortened the opportunity and forced a two-minute four-on-four situation.

San Jose took the lead not long after that situation ended, seizing the momentum and running with it from there. Then the visitors added on with a power play goal of their own, and Ontario was unable to respond after that.

The Reign have seen mixed results from their power play all season, a unit that has been frustrating at times but certainly has the right amount of talent to threaten their opponent. Their best run of success came back in February when they scored in four straight games on the man-advantage, a stretch that included six goals on 19 opportunities, with three of the contests being played on the road.

But in April, Ontario’s power play stalled, scoring only three times in the final eight games of the regular season. That will have to change and be something they lean to work their way deeper into the postseason.

– Many experienced players from last season’s early playoff success are still there for the Reign to lean on tonight. Taylor Ward is undoubtedly one of those skaters, who produced seven points in eight games a year ago on two goals and five assists during eight playoff appearances. Ward has also played 15 Calder Cup Playoff games in his four-year career with Ontario.

Charles Hudon is another go-to offensive option, who had three goals and five points in the eight games a year ago and has eight goals in his 25-game Calder Cup Playoff career which has included 14 points during his time with Colorado, Syracuse and the St. John’s IceCaps, with whom he scored four points in four games in 2017, his first AHL postseason.

Samuel Fagemo and Andre Lee have seen mixed success in the playoffs offensively, with Fagemo scoring five times in 16 career postseason games for Ontario, while Lee has four goals in 11 games, all four of which came during last year’s run where he also achieved a plus-five rating, playing to an even-or-better number in seven of the eight contests.

– The most memorable moment from Sturm’s postgame comments Thursday was when he gave praise to the Reign fans who made the drive from the Inland Empire. He’s hoping to see the same kind of showing tonight.

“I’ve got to say a big thank you to the fans who came today,” Sturm said after Game 1. “Those are the real fans that come here to support us. I really appreciate it. I’m really happy these guys came here today and supported us and unfortunately we didn’t give them what they wanted but I do really appreciate that they found their way downtown here.”

With tonight’s Game 2 being on a Saturday, look for even more support from the IE faithful as they aim to help Ontario continue its season.

Today’s Reign Check Gameday Forecast
To prepare for Game 2 tonight, Paige Capistran and I take a look back at Ontario’s struggles in their playoff opener and preview tonight’s matchup with audio from Sturm and Jones.

It’s do or die for the Reign tonight in Game 2 at Crypto.com Arena. The puck drops at 6 p.m. in downtown Los Angeles!