Results tagged “Curtis Darling” from Sporting an opinion

A close game for the first 65 minutes was anything but in the shootout, where Stephane Goulet, Dan Sexton and MacGregor Sharp scored on Curtis Darling to give the Bakersfield Condors a 4-3 win Wednesday.

Michael Pelech scored his first goal of the season, and Tony Voce and Peter Lenes also scored for the Reign, the latter coming short-handed. Darling stopped 31 of 34 shots in net.

The game began at 10:30 a.m., part of an annual Field Trip promotion at Bakersfield's Rabobank Arena.

Neither the Reign (7-8-1) nor the Condors (9-6-0) had participated in a shootout or overtime game this season. Greg Hogeboom, Tim Kraus and Andrew Martens were foiled in the skills competition by Bakersfield goalie Timo Pielmeier, who stopped 25 of 28 shots prior to the shootout.

More details in tomorrow's editions of the Sun and Bulletin.

Ouch.

The Reign (7-8-0) were outshot 51-18 by a Victoria Salmon Kings squad (3-10-0) clearly changed since getting swept out of Citizens Business Bank Arena last week. The line of Andy Brandt, Scott Howes and Adam Taylor accounted for three of the four goals on Curtis Darling, who made 47 saves -- often enough to win two games for the Reign.

Not too many Reign highlights in this one; they won't play again until Wednesday in Bakersfield.

Here's the story out of the Victoria Times-Colonist.

Jon Rheault recorded a goal and an assist, Tony Voce scored a power-play goal and Curtis Darling -- playing his third game in as many days -- recorded a 28-save shutout.

A physical game, and Jack Bauer himself -- Kiefer Sutherland -- was in the building. No terrorist attacks, though. More details in tomorrow's editions.

It seemed to be the perfect recipe -- bring back the same leadership corps, the same coach, the same system, add some physical toughness and skilled forwards -- and you've got an Ontario Reign squad whose physical talents match their mental acumen.

The only problem, especially Friday, is that the mental toughness wasn't present.

"I think we did it to ourselves," said Jon Rheault, asked if the Las Vegas Wranglers had gotten under their skin in a 4-3 loss in the Reign's home opener. "We have to learn to control our emotions. The reactions to some of the calls we had - we got hit and then we'd spear someone - it's part of the game. We've got to be more mentally tough than that."

Karl Taylor said he prefers to start the season on the road. With five straight away from the Bank to start the season, his Reign squad got to find out why.

"Playing some games on the road probably made us a little closer as a group," goaltender Curtis Darling said. "We got to spend a little more time together. We had some highs and lows on the road that I think were exaggerated a little bit, but it gave us time to sort that stuff out early on in the season, so we can get all the kinks out and get rolling."

That's the good news.

The bad news is, there's still some kinks to sort out from a 2-3 start. The Reign met for an hour and a half Thursday, followed by an optional skate. Karl Taylor talks about the team's objectives in tomorrow's editions.

The Reign begin a stretch of 7 home games in 10 days tomorrow night against the Las Vegas Wranglers at 7:30 p.m.

It seems to be all-or-nothing this season for the Reign, who lost 3-0 in Stockton on Saturday night to give the Thunder their first victory of the season.

Through four games so far, the Reign have scored 0, 8, 7, and 0 goals. Andrew Perugini stopped all 35 shots he faced in net before 6,155 at Stockton Arena.

Though the Reign generated chances, outshooting the Thunder 35-22, they benefitted from only one power play. And though they were able to stop the Thunder (1-3) on five power-play shifts, Garet Hunt, Kenny MacAuley and Chris D'Alvise scored at even strength against Curtis Darling (19 saves).

More details in tomorrow's editions; the official scoresheet is here.

The Reign (2-2) play the Condors on Wednesday in Bakersfield, then host their home opener on Friday against the Las Vegas Wranglers at Citizens Business Bank Arena.

The only thing more perfect than the sunset over the Inland Empire on Friday was the Reign power play. The Reign (2-1) converted on all five of their power-play chances, and got goals from six different players, in a 7-1 blowout victory over the Stockton Thunder before 5,805 in Stockton Arena.

Tony Voce came off injured reserve to score two goals; Adam Henrich and Jon Rheault had a goal and two assists each; and Curtis Darling picked up his second victory of the season, stopping 30 of 31 shots. The Reign knocked out their opponent's starting goalie for the second straight game, sending Bryan Pitton to the home bench after one period and three goals. Andrew Perugini came on to stop 10 of 14 shots over the final two periods.

The Reign also proved adept down a man, successfully killing six of seven Thunder power plays. Stockton is 0-4 to start the season after eliminating the Reign in the first round of last season's playoffs.

Forward Greg Hogeboom scored his fourth goal of the season, and defensemen Shawn Germain and Andrew Martens scored their first for the Reign. Captain Jon Francisco added two assists, and Hogeboom, Peter Lenes, Dwight King, Tim Kraus and David Walker added one. The game also featured penalties assessed for five separate fights, two involving Reign enforcer James McEwan, and Michael Pelech, King and Walker in the others.

More details in tomorrow's editions and, in case you missed it, here is my feature about the Reign's captains and alternate captains this season that appeared in the paper Friday.

In a resounding response to their opening-night shutout loss, the Reign exploded for eight goals from five different players, and chased the Bakersfield Condors' starting goalie in an 8-2 win at Rabobank Arena.

Greg Hogeboom notched a hat trick and added an assist; Adam Henrich had two goals and an assist, Tim Kraus had four assists and Curtis Darling stopped 34-of-36 shots in his first appearance between the pipes. The Reign were outshot 36-24 but still chased Bakersfield starter Timo Pielmeier, who stopped just 12-of-19 shots.

Mike Egener scored on Justin Pogge, last night's starter, in the third period, and Peter Lenes and Jon Rheault also scored for the Reign (1-1).

A disciplined Reign squad needed only to kill three penalties, while taking advantage of 3-of-10 power-play opportunities in the win.

More details in tomorrow's editions.

Not much good news in Bakersfield (unless you're a big fan of penalty killing).

The Reign were outshot 38-15 and outscored 5-0 in their season opener against a Bakersfield team stacked with Ducks prospects. Justin Pogge, the parent club's number-three goalie, was perfect in stopping what few offensive chances the Reign could muster.

Curiously, the Reign went 7-for-7 on the penalty kill but had a little harder time stopping the Condors at even strength. Bakersfield used their speed to full effect, and scored twice on fast-breaks. Mike Zacharias got the call over Curtis Darling in net and played fairly well considering how much time the Reign spent in their own zone. "Most of the goals we didn't give him much chance on," Karl Taylor said.

More details in tomorrow's editions.

One more detail - Jon Francisco is the new (old?) captain. He was officially handed the "C" again, and Shawn Germain and David Walker donned "A"s.

Jon Francisco and Greg Hogeboom scored goals, but the Reign were outplayed on special teams and had a hard time controlling the zone in a 5-2 loss to the Las Vegas Wranglers at Orleans Arena. Curtis Darling made 35 saves in goal.

More details in tomorrow's editions; the two teams will meet again at 7 p.m. Friday at Center Ice Arena.

As with any sport, the value of an ECHL preseason game lies less in getting a win as much as assessing the team's talent, deciding who to keep and who to cut.

"We'll try to get everybody in and if not, oh well. That's life," Reign coach Karl Taylor said.

In a way, this is an even more delicate exercise in the ECHL, with so much turnover from year to year (although the Reign have a particularly high retention rate -- 12 of the 30 players who appeared in a game last season are back). But for more than half of his 27 players, Karl Taylor has no frame of reference for how they'll execute for him in a game. On the other hand, there can be as much turnover during the ECHL season as the off-season because of AHL recalls, injuries, trades, and the occasional roster cut. Maybe none of the players on tonight's roster will make it through to the end of the season in Ontario.

That said, here they are: