Lenes, Hogeboom, Walker on All-Star experience.

Because you can’t get enough ECHL All-Star Game material, here’s what David Walker, Greg Hogeboom and Peter Lenes had to say after last night’s game … also, interesting to note that Judd Blackwater was traded from Stockton to Alaska for Colin Hemingway, a day after Blackwater appeared in the all-star game. 
Continue reading “Lenes, Hogeboom, Walker on All-Star experience.” »

Bakersfield 2, Reign 1, SO.

Greg Hogeboom scored in the second period, and Bakersfield tied it on a power-play goal in the third that was deflected in by Mathieu Aubin. 


In the shootout, Bakersfield’s Timo Pielmeier was perfect against four Reign shooters, while Sasha Pokulok and Aubin scored on Curtis Darling.


Right wing Sean O’Connor signed earlier in the day and made his debut for the Reign. The 6-foot-2, 230-pound power forward took a team-high five shots but was held scoreless. In 60 games last season for the Victoria Salmon Kings, O’Connor had 19 goals and 27 points.

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

Alaska 6, Reign 3.

David Walker scored twice, and Greg Hogeboom once, but the Reign extended their losing streak to five games with a loss in Anchorage.

The Reign got no closer than one goal, when Walker made it 3-2 at 3:54 of the third period, off assists from Shawn Germain and Mike Howe. Alaska responded with goals by Eric Boguniecki, John Lammers and Justin Johnson. Walker closed the scoring with 30 seconds left in the game, off assists from Germain and Rob Pearce.

The Reign play at Bakersfield on Saturday. Curtis Darling stopped 25 of 31 shots in the loss.

Alaska 3, Reign 2, shootout.

In a game that finished just before 11 p.m. Pacific time, the Reign came up empty in the shootout after playing the Alaska Aces to a 2-2 tie through 65 minutes.

Michael Pelech and Tim Kraus scored to give the Reign a 2-0 lead they held until late in the second period. The Reign (13-15-2-2) then had to hang on after being outshot 12-3 in the third period. Curtis Darling stopped 35 of 37 shots in net.

Pelech’s fourth goal of the season came during a Reign power playat 3:35 of the first period. Mike Howe and defenseman Mike Egener picked up the assists. Kraus made it 2-0 at 6:08 of the middle period, putting a slapshot in from the left circle off assists from Greg Hogeboom and Shawn Germain.

But Alaska netminder Scott Reid took over from there, while Jason Ryznar (with 23 seconds left in the second) and and Bryan Miller (4:00 into the third) managed to tie the game up. Reid took over in the shootout, stoning Tony Voce, Hogeboom, Peter Lenes and Chad Starling in order, while Nick Mazzolini and Alexandre Imbeault scored on Darling.

The Reign will play the Aces again tomorrow night — their ninth game away from home out of 13 games in December — and ring in the New Year in Alaska an hour later than the rest of us.

In case you missed it, Lenes, Hogeboom, David Walker and Jon Rheault (who’s been in Manchester the last month) were named to the National Conference All-Star team earlier Wednesday.

Reign all-stars: Walker, Hogeboom, Lenes, Rheault

David Walker and Greg Hogeboom will start, and childhood friends Jon Rheault and Peter Lenes will come off the bench, for the National Conference all-star team at the ECHL All-Star Game on Jan. 20.

All four made the final cut, announced Wednesday and determined in voting by National Conference coaches, team captains, media directors, broadcasters and media members. Coaches also submitted the top prospects from within their conference to determine the final roster with each of the eight teams having a representative.

Continue reading “Reign all-stars: Walker, Hogeboom, Lenes, Rheault” »

Bakersfield 3, Reign 2.

After playing “absolutely horrendous” hockey for two periods, in the words of coach Karl Taylor, the Reign staged a comeback but ultimately fell short before 7,365 at The Bank.

Greg Hogeboom and Tony Voce scored power-play goals. Curtis Darling returned to the net (after getting hung up at the airport a day earlier) and stopped 31 of 34 shots.

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

Reign 3, Las Vegas 2, shootout.

Three defensemen — Shawn Germain, Chad Starling and Jon Landry — scored in the shootout, with Germain scoring on the first shootout attempt of his career. Jon Francisco and Greg Hogeboom scored in regulation, the latter coming with 3:14 left in the third period to send the game to overtime tied at 2.


Curtis Darling made 26 saves, and stopped Las Vegas’ Jason Krischuk immediately following Germain’s goal to seal the victory after six shootout rounds. 

There were more fighting majors than goals, with Mike Egener’s quick, one-sided bout with Vegas’ John Schwarz the highlight for the Reign. Earlier Reign captain Jon Francisco got into a rare fight of his own, which resulted in six stitches to close a wound on his upper lip. But the fight served a greater purpose, sparking yet another Reign comeback, this one from a 2-0 deficit.

More details in tomorrow’s editions.

Reign 5, Idaho 3.

A night after being shut out on seven power-play opportunities, the Reign didn’t take any prime scoring chances to chance.


Peter Lenes, Tim Kraus, Mike Howe, Greg Hogeboom and Jon Francisco scored goals — the latter four on the power play — as the Reign skated away with a resounding win at Qwest Arena in Boise. 

The Reign finished 4-for-6 with the man advantage. In so doing they ruined the goals-against average of Steelheads goalie Rejean Beauchemin, who entered the game with the second-lowest GAA in the ECHL. They also solved the league’s second-best penalty kill; Idaho entered the game having killed 85.6 percent of opponents’ power plays.

Curtis Darling stopped 21 of 24 shots for the victory, and Lenes, Hogeboom and Rob Pearce each collected two assists.

More details in tomorrow’s editions.

A couple notes for the weekend.

1. Defenseman Andrew Martens was playing forward last night for the Reign in Idaho, skating on a line with Mike Howe, Michael Pelech and sometimes James McEwan. This isn’t a new development; Martens did the same last year for the Reign when injuries hit particularly hard, and Karl Taylor recently joked that Martens did so well at forward it was hard to move him back to the blue line. He took the place of winger Chris Curran, who was placed on 3-day injured reserve prior to the game, a move that will keep Curran out of Friday’s rematch in Boise. We’re not sure if Curran has been set back at all in his recovery from a broken leg, or if it’s something else, but will try to update when the team returns Monday.


2. Greg Hogeboom and Peter Lenes continue to be the main men responsible for picking up the scoring slack with Tony Voce injured, and Jon Rheault and Dwight King in Manchester. Hogeboom has at least one goal in every game this month, including a hat trick on Dec. 2, for a total of six goals and two assists in four games. The rookie Lenes is clearly adjusting to the ECHL level, with four goals and two assists in December, as well as the only goal in Wednesday’s shootout. His shootout technique was predictably fast and furious, finished not by anything fancy but a simple forehand that Rejean Beauchemin didn’t see coming. Beauchemin, who is second in the ECHL with a 2.43 goals-against average, had not lost in a shootout this season.

3. The Reign will wear specially-designed L.A. Kings affiliate jerseys Friday and Saturday in Idaho. It might seem weird to debut it on the road, but it might equally seem unfair that the Steelheads wore specially-designed Dallas Stars affiliate jerseys on Wednesday.

Reign 4, Victoria 3, OT.

Michael Pelech’s goal 2:44 into overtime was the difference as the Reign snapped a five-game losing streak at Citizens Business Bank Arena.


Peter Lenes scored twice, Greg Hogeboom once, and the line of Lenes, Hogeboom and Tim Kraus accounted for three of the team’s four goals.

Mike Zacharias, pulled from his last start Wednesday in Utah, stopped 27 of 30 shots to improve to 3-4-1.

More details in tomorrow’s editions.