Reign 4, Idaho 1.

Greg Hogeboom, Michael Pelech, Peter Lenes and Jon Francisco scored goals – the latter going into an empty net with 21 seconds left – and Curtis Darling made 29 saves as the Reign defeated the top-ranked team in the National Conference.

More details in tomorrow’s editions, but here were the postgame thoughts of Karl Taylor and Andrew Martens …
Continue reading “Reign 4, Idaho 1.” »

Reign trade Peralta to Toledo.

The Reign have traded forward Sal Peralta to the Toledo Walleye for future considerations.

The 26-year-old had no goals and one assist in six games this season for the Reign, who acquired him in a midseason trade with Kalamazoo for defenseman Jon Landry on Jan. 6.

Presuambly, the trade clears up salary-cap space for head coach Karl Taylor, who has been trying to acquire a player all week. More details after the game.

**Update: Taylor said that Peralta “wasn’t happy with his role, and so we both decided to find him a new home.” However, the trade won’t help out with the Reign’s salary-cap space.

Germain’s season is over.

Defenseman Shawn Germain will have surgery on his ailing left wrist, ending his season. The news comes at a bad time for the Reign, who are in the midst of a three-game losing streak and coming off their most lopsided loss ever, 7-0 to Bakersfield.

But Germain said the severity of the injury could compromise his long-term health if it’s not corrected immediately. Plenty of details in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin.

Here are some quotes that didn’t make the paper …

Continue reading “Germain’s season is over.” »

A very, very light Dusty Collins update.

In researching how former Reign players are doing for tomorrow’s notebook, I came across this tidbit on current Manitoba Moose center Dusty Collins in the Winnipeg Sun. It has nothing to do with hockey (which is what blogs are for, I figure) …

The center told his girlfriend he was going home to Phoenix for Christmas. Instead, he drove to Marquette, Mich., where she attends university, and got one of her friends to take her out for dinner.

As they sat in the restaurant, Collins came out from the kitchen and popped the question.

She said yes.

Score one for Dusty.

“It was pretty big time,” Collins said. “I’m not going to lie.”

Bakersfield 7, Reign 0.

The Condors raced out to an early lead, got some resistance in the second, then pulled away late to record their first shutout since opening night in Bakersfield — also against the Reign.

This time it was Tyler Sims who earned the shutout, a 26-save effort that included a few beauties when the Reign managed to pressure the net. But Bakersfield enjoyed most of the scoring chances, outshooting Ontario 41-26 and sending the Reign to their largest margin of defeat this season.

Curtis Darling got the start for the third time in as many days, but was pulled after allowing five goals on 28 shots in just over 44 minutes. Mike Zacharias finished and allowed two goals on 13 shots.

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

Stockton 3, Reign 2.

If you’ve seen the Reign play recently, neither the game nor the result were out of the ordinary – a few too many pucks off the post, a few too many scoring chances on the other end (they were outshot 31-27) and, at the end, a loss – their fourth in five games.

Karl Taylor said afterwards he felt the team deserved better, and the law of averages says the Reign probably should have more than one win to show for their last five games. It won’t get any easier tomorrow with a 2 p.m. date in Bakersfield. In fact, the team boarded a bus immediately after the game to head north.

Taylor tried some creative things – he pulled Darling with seven minutes left to create a 6-on-4 power play, and it worked when Mike Egener scored 12 seconds later. He also shifted Tim Kraus to right wing on the second power-play unit, and that worked too – the natural center scored to break a four-game drought in the third period.

But for most part it was another offensively frustrating effort. More details – including an update on defenseman Shawn Germain, who did not play – in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin.

Stockton 5, Reign 0.

The Reign were hoping for a better start to their brutally scheduled weekend.

Stockton goaltender Andrew Perugini made 33 saves before the two teams headed down Interstate 5 for a rematch Saturday night at The Bank.

Of Perugini’s four career shutouts, three have come against the Reign. The Reign (18-23-3-4) fell to 3-5-1 against Stockton (22-18-2-5) this season.

Curtis Darling started and stopped 36 of 40 shots. His night ended early when Oren Eizenmann scored his second breakaway goal of the game at 11:12 of the third period.

Mike Zacharias finished out the game and stopped 6 of 7, allowing a wraparound goal to Garet Hunt with 44.7 seconds left in the game.

More details in tomorrow’s editions of the Daily Bulletin.