Tag Archives: James McEwan

Costly fight for McEwan.

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Reign forward James McEwan landed on 21-day injured reserve today, a result of the hand injury he sustained in Saturday’s first-period fight with Stockton’s Garet Hunt. McEwan left the rink after the fight and was taken to a hospital. He’s out of the hospital but did not practice with the team on Monday.


The news was better for defenseman Mike Egener, who did take part in practice and is hopeful to return this weekend after missing Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury.
More news and notes in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin…

Reign 5, Stockton 3.

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First the good news.

The Reign power play came alive; officially they were 2-for-8 with the man advantage, but Tony Voce’s first goal came two seconds after a 5-on-4 shift expired.

The penalty kill was equally impressive, killing 4 of 5 – including a total of 1:37 while down two men late in the third period.

Todd Jackson came back into the lineup and was officially awarded two assists in his debut game. That could be changed upon review; Michael Pelech insisted that he did not touch the puck that Jackson deposited on the goal line in the first period, even though the goal was credited to Pelech, who followed Jackson’s shot to make sure it counted.

The other goals were more clear-cut — Voce scored twice, Jon Francisco and Sean O’Connor scored once, and Curtis Darling stopped 29 of 32 on less than 24 hours’ rest.

Now the bad news: James McEwan was taken to a hospital after his first-period fight with Stockton’s James Bates. McEwan injured his hand in the fight and did not return to the game.

Prior to the game, defenseman Mike Egener went on three-day injured reserve with what Karl Taylor called a “lower body injury,” and was replaced on the blue line by Brian Kilburg. Taylor said there is no timetable yet for Egener to return from Friday’s injury, but 3-day IR certainly leaves more room for optimism than the 7- or 21-day IR.

Peter Lenes, who has not scored a goal since Dec. 12, was scratched for the first time all season in order to make room for Jackson.

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

Friday’s postgame thoughts.

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It’s the old maxim for teams on a losing streak: If they knew what they were doing wrong, they’d have fixed it by now.

If the Reign knew why they were only 1-2-1 to start their five-game homestand …

“I don’t know right now,” captain Jon Francisco said. “I’d like to pinpoint it as well. We’ve just got to make the simple plays, work through it, figure out what’s going on here and get that drive and determination that we’re sick of losing. It’s playoff time for us. We have to have that mindset.”
Continue reading “Friday’s postgame thoughts.” »

Friday’s postgame thoughts.

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The consensus opinion (both Karl Taylor and Jon Francisco volunteered it after the game) was that the Reign were lucky to get a point Friday. Even though they led the Alaska Aces for all but the game’s final 6:23, the 0-for-8 power play success rate stuck out like a sore thumb.

Speaking of the power play, Francisco said that “we’re working on some new stuff. It’s coming around. We’re getting shots to the net. I had two backdoor chances that I didn’t bury. That’s on me — I know that. I’ll be better tomorrow.”

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ECHL fines Reign’s McEwan

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The ECHL announced that it has fined Reign left wing James McEwan an undisclosed amount as a result of his actions at the end of last Thursday’s game in Las Vegas. McEwan was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for spearing.

He is fined under Rule 29 Supplemental Discipline. Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, player fines collected by the ECHL are given to the PHPA for its ECHL Player’s Hardship Fund.

Reign at Las Vegas, 7 p.m. tonight. Update.

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As with any sport, the value of an ECHL preseason game lies less in getting a win as much as assessing the team’s talent, deciding who to keep and who to cut.

“We’ll try to get everybody in and if not, oh well. That’s life,” Reign coach Karl Taylor said.

In a way, this is an even more delicate exercise in the ECHL, with so much turnover from year to year (although the Reign have a particularly high retention rate — 12 of the 30 players who appeared in a game last season are back). But for more than half of his 27 players, Karl Taylor has no frame of reference for how they’ll execute for him in a game. On the other hand, there can be as much turnover during the ECHL season as the off-season because of AHL recalls, injuries, trades, and the occasional roster cut. Maybe none of the players on tonight’s roster will make it through to the end of the season in Ontario.

That said, here they are:
Continue reading “Reign at Las Vegas, 7 p.m. tonight. Update.” »

Reign: Training camp begins today. Update.

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Just a reminder that Reign training camp starts today at 10:30 a.m. with a free, open-to-the-public practice at Center Ice Arena in Ontario. Geoff Walker is still in Manchester, N.H. with the Kings’ AHL affiliate; here are the other players under contract that are expected to attend:

Forwards:
Jon Rheault
Doug Spooner
Todd Jackson
Tim Kraus
Jon Francisco
Dan Leslie
Robert Pearce
Brian Matte
Tyler Mugford
Peter Lenes
Joel Irving
James McEwan
Tony Voce
Mike Howe
Chris Curran*

Defensemen:
Chad Starling
David Walker
Shawn Germain
Brian Kilburg
Dan Knapp
Andrew Martens
Cameron Cepek
Maxime Frechette

Goaltenders:
Mike Zacharias
Curtis Darling

*Curran is still recovering from the leg injury he sustained at the end of last season. Last we heard, he is expected to be at the practice, but not participating in all aspects.

Update (9 a.m.): Geoff Walker has signed an AHL contract with Manchester. The right wing is likely to start the season with the Monarchs and, although he might be back in Ontario at some point during the season, he’d probably prefer to make his next move up to the NHL.

Also, Manchester has assigned left wing Dwight King and forward Michael Pelech to the Reign, and released Mike Egener, Lenes, McEwan, Mugford, Pearce and Zacharias from their tryouts.

Pelech, a 6-3, 206-pound center, recently completed a four-year career in the Ontario Hockey League. He recorded 51 goals and 170 points in 249 games between Missisauga, Kitchener and St. Michael’s. Last season in Missisauga, he had 19 goals and 65 points in 68 games. Pelech was chosen in the sixth round of the June entry draft by the Kings.

King, a 6-3, 220-pound center, just finished his junior career with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. The Saskatchewan native [stats here] was nearly a point-a-game player his final two seasons in Lethbridge, finishing with 25 goals and 60 points in 64 games in 2008-09. The Kings selected him in the fourth round of the June draft.

10:15 a.m. update: The ECHL has officially reviewed all the training camp rosters from its member teams, so the above roster should be accurate. Mike Egener isn’t on it, and Voce, Frechette, Cepek and Darling are the additions. We’ll update a bit later on.P