First off, I realize I left an important detail out of the game story that ran in print: Jon Landry isn’t here yet. I have on good word that he’s expected to arrive before Friday’s game against Victoria, and will try to score an interview with him prior to the game, if possible.
Because of the Adam Henrich-for-Landry trade, I didn’t have room for the usual depth of game details. Here they are …
– The Reign went 1-for-6 on the power play. Stockton’s penalty kill, which entered the game 16th in the league (79.1), stood pretty tall. In the second period the Reign had a pair of 5-on-3 power plays, something the team had been working on in practice this week, but neither lasted longer than 21 seconds.
– The lone man-advantage goal was Geoff Walker’s. It wasn’t exactly a garbage goal, but certainly a good example of the big guy using his positioning to get his stick on a centering pass to the crease (from Tony Voce) with both a goalie and a defenseman flanking him.
– Both Karl Taylor and Geoff Walker agreed that Walker was somewhat out of game shape after playing just two games for Manchester.
– There were actually two Reign shots off the goal frame. In addition to Jon Rheault’s short-handed clanger off the crossbar in the second period, Daryl King hit a post from longer range in the third.
– I’d have to dig a bit to see if it’s a record, but the final shot count margin (37-20) favored the Reign more than any recent memory serves.
– Stockton’s Colton Yellow Horn, who scored his first goal of the season, is an indigenous North American — or, as they’re known in Canada, First Nations. His hometown is listed as Brocket, a city in Southern Alberta located on Peigan land. (Enough people in the press box were questioning his name that I found this worth looking up. Of course, he’s also an accomplished hockey player.)
– Robert Pearce was at right wing on a line with Dwight King and Michael Pelech. He played quite a bit in the first period, after which Peter Lenes took most of the shifts in that spot. “I thought he played hard, had good energy. He’s just got to get his legs under him,” Taylor said of Pearce. James McEwan got his first night off all season.
– Taylor said that it was the fourth straight game in which an off-ice official at The Bank was late to stop the clock when there was a whistle in the final seconds of the third period (and thus costing the Reign a possible scoring chance). The off-ice official disagreed. No need to go any deeper than that, but it’s something to watch for.
– On a similar note, the on-ice officials called a loose game by ECHL standards: only eight penalties total, all minors. As a result, the game went fast and there were a lot of hard hits that ended as just that: Hard hits. Quite refreshing and entertaining.
