Mark your calendars, Reign fans.

The Ontario Reign announced changes Friday to their inaugural season schedule. The Reign will host the Bakersfield Condors and Las Vegas Wranglers on Oct. 10 and Oct. 12, respectively, in two preseason games at Center Ice Arena in Ontario. The Reign have also moved their Dec. 10 home game against Phoenix to Feb. 6, and a Dec. 12 home game against Las Vegas to Feb. 11. Center Ice Arena is located at 201 S. Plum Ave., east of Euclid and south of Holt Blvd.
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Ryan Hall: didn’t have “my ‘A’ game”

Big Bear Lake native Ryan Hall has updated his personal blog for the first time since finishing 10th in the Olympic marathon on Sunday. If you watched him race, here’s what you might find interesting:

– He figured he had a chance to catch the leaders until the 30-kilometer (almost 19-mile) mark, a little more than two-thirds of the way through the race.
– In hindsight, Hall wished that he’d gone out too fast, like a number of the leaders did, even though he might have had to settle for a lower overall finish.
– Hall conceded that his training hadn’t been “nearly as quality” as for previous marathons, “for whatever reason.”
– The quick conclusion stateside is that he wasn’t as ready for the Beijing heat as the African runners. Hall throws out a few hypotheses for finishing 10th, and the heat is one.

Reign add two forwards.

Denny Johnston and Jon Rheault, a pair of right wings who haven’t played a lick of professional hockey, were signed by the Reign on Thursday.

Johnston is 26 and coming off a three-year career at the University of New Brunswick, where he had 21 goals and 47 points in 82 games. [career stats]

Rheault (rhymes with “bro”) is 22 and coming off a four-year career at Providence, where he averaged 14 goals and 26 points a season. [career stats]

The Reign now consist of: four defensemen, four forwards, one head coach and one Zamboni. Head coach Karl Taylor still needs 12 players to get up to the 20-man quota.

The Reign has a Zamboni.

The 9,000th ice-resurfacing machine made by Frank J. Zamboni & Co. is on display at the Ontario Mills mall — which would be neat but unspectacular, except that the Reign will use this historic Zamboni on the Citizens Business Bank Arena ice during their inaugural season. In the meantime, go to the mall and give the Zamboni a pat on the back.

That brings the Reign’s total to 6 players (14 to go), one coach, and one Zamboni.

Read the full release here.

More Ontario Reign trivia answers provided.

Q: Who was the first player ever traded in Reign history?

A: David Schulz and Max Taylor, who today were traded to the Johnstown (Penn.) Chiefs for defenseman Andrew Martens.

Martens becomes the sixth player under contract with the expansion ECHL squad. That leaves head coach Karl Taylor with 14 more to go.
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