REIGN PREVIEW 11/8 – Ontario vs. San Diego

WHO: Ontario Reign (6-4-1-0) vs. San Diego Gulls (4-4-2-0)
WHAT: AHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME #12/72
WHEN: Saturday, November 8 @ 6:00 Pacific
WHERE: Toyota Arena – Ontario, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FloHockey – AUDIO: Reign Radio – TWITTER: @ReignInsider & @OntarioReign

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Ontario Reign and San Diego Gulls wrap up a home and home series tonight for Ontario’s Hockey Fights Cancer Night after the Gulls defeated the Reign 6-4 at Pechanga Arena last night.

COMING IN PAIRS – THE GOOD AND THE BAD: The Reign scored two power-play goals on seven power-play opportunities. It was their second time potting a pair of man advantage tallies in a contest, their first since game number four where they went 2-for-8 in a 3-2 win vs. Colorado on Oct. 19. Heading into last night Ontario had just gone 1-for-11 in their previous four games on the power-play. The Reign are 17th in the AHL on the man advantage (9-for-48, 18.8%) having had the second most power-plays by any tram in the league. Heading into the evening the Gulls has not scored a short-handed goal but they were able to grab their first two goals of the game last night on the penalty kill. San Diego is 8^th in the AHL on the penalty kill (30-for-36, 83.3%) and 19-for-22 over their last five games.

 SEASON HIGHS IN THE SHOT COLUMN: Ontario generated a season high 45 shots in the loss last night shattering their previous high of 33 back on Oct. 29 in a 6-2 loss at Henderson. They a first period high with 16 shots and a third period high with 15 shots last evening. It was the first time this season they were able to generate double digits in shots in all three periods. For the Reign it was a positive sign in the right direction as they were coming off just 20 shots Wednesday night and had averaged 24 per game over their last three contests.    

 HUSSO HEROICS: Ville Husso made a season high 41 saves in the victory for the Gulls last night stopping the first 29 shots that came his way and has now won three of his last four starts. He has been the work horse in the crease for San Diego in the early goings of the season having started eight of the first 10 games including five of the last six over the last 14 days. Having started three games in the last six days we’ll see if the Gulls give the nod to Husso tonight or if they turn to Calle Clang who is 0-0-2 this season with a 3.28 goals-against average and .863 save percentage.

 ONTARIO GOALTENDING SITUATION: The Reign have alternated starts between Erik Portillo and Pheonix Copley the last seven games dating back to Oct. 24 as Copley suffered his third straight loss last night allowing six goals on 32 shots. After making 24 saves in a 5-2 win at Abbotsford on Oct. 24 Copley is 0-3 in his last three appearances with a 5.56 goals-against average and .814 save percentage. Meanwhile, Erik Portillo has won three straight games with a 1.33 GAA and .949 SV%. He has surrendered two or fewer goals in his last six starts dating back to Oct. 12 making 140 saves on 150 shots for a 1.70 GAA and .933 SV%.

 FORWARD LINE CHANGES: Last night we saw a change in the Ontario forward line combinations for the first time in a quite a while. The fourth line through 11 games has stayed consistent featuring Aätu Jamsen, Jack Hughes, Koehn Ziemmer, and Jacob Doty. Jamsen has played all 11 games while Doty and Hughes have appeared in eight and Ziemmer playing in four games. In the previous six contests prior to last evening the first three lines had look as such:

Ward-Gawdin-Chromiak
Pinelli-Thomas-Guttman
Lee-Connors-Wright

Below were the top three lines from last night:

Ward-Thomas-Chromiak
Lee-Gawdin-Guttman
Pinelli-Connors-Wright

INDIVIDUAL NOTES FROM LAST NIGHT: Martin Chromiak tied a career high in points last night (2-2-4) while also matching a career high with seven shots… Otto Salin appeared in the lineup after being a healthy scratch the last three games… Akil Thomas tallied two assists for his second straight multi-point game and his team leading fourth… Kenny Connors scored his second goal in his last four games… Joe Hicketts scored a power-play goal and added an assist and leads all defensemen with three multi-point contests.