Tehcnically, the Reign didn’t make a trade on Friday, the final day to complete trades in the ECHL. They still made a roster move that paid immediate dividends, as forward Doug Spooner scored a goal in his first professional game in the Reign’s 4-3 victory over the Victoria Salmon Kings.

Bud Holloway scored twice, and almost had his second hat trick of the season before his goal at 14:59 of the first was re-credited to Jon Rheault at midgame. Dale Reinhardt, on a line with Holloway and Rheault as Jon Francisco served a one-game suspension, stepped up with three assists. Jeff Zatkoff stopped 40 of 43 shots and was impressive enough to earn the third star of the game up there at the Save-On Foods Memorial Center.

Spooner, a 6-3, 200-pound forward out of the University of Waterloo, played his final collegiate game Feb. 14, 2008, scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 win over the University of Windsor. Hockeydb.com, usually a veritable font of hockey statistics, doesn’t list Spooner as having played anywhere since then. So as far as we can tell, this was his first professional game. Welcome to the ECHL.

Since Spooner’s college career began in 2004, he figures to have been recruited by Karl Taylor, who coached Waterloo from 2003-05. As a senior, Spooner led the Warriors with 17 goals in 28 games. Spooner was skating on a line with Geoff Walker and Tim Kraus on Friday when he scored at 9:51 of the first period to make it 2-1.

The Reign won with just 14 skaters (nine forwards, five defensemen). Itan Chavira and Mike Howe were scratches. Francisco is eligible to return tomorrow. The official scoresheet is here.