Chris Cloud gets first AHL call-up.

The Reign lost their second forward in three days to the Manchester Monarchs on Wednesday.

Left wing Chris Cloud, who leads the team in major penalties, signed a pro tryout contract with the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate, joining linemate J.D. Watt at the next level. Cloud has five goals, 10 points and 84 penalty minutes this season, appearing in all 22 games. He is tied for second in the ECHL in major penalties with 10.

The Monarchs recently lost center Cam Paddock to a four-game suspension, so Cloud and Watt could conceivably return to the Reign soon.

Still, it’s quite an opportunity for Cloud, who spent the last two seasons in the Central Hockey League and has never played in the AHL before.

The Reign could be without two-thirds of their toughest line Friday in Alaska. Count on Shayne Neigum seeing plenty of time at forward, and Kevin Estrada getting a long look in his debut game, with Bill Bagron centering the line.

Season ends in Manchester.

The Manchester Monarchs, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Kings and Reign, saw their season end Saturday in an overtime heartbreaker.

Ryan Potulny wristed a shot past a screened Jeff Zatkoff at 3:07 of overtime, giving the Binghamton Senators the 6-5 win in Game 7 of the first-round playoff series. Manchester came back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-1, and took a brief 5-4 lead on a goal by Dwight King at 10:19 of the third period.

But Binghamton’s Erik Condra scored with 1:45 left in the third period to tie the game at 5. Potulny’s overtime goal was his fifth point of the game, including four assists.

Zatkoff relieved Martin Jones after Condra’s first goal of the game, 56 seconds into the second period. Jordan Hill had an assist and finished plus-1 — much better statistically than center Brayden Schenn, The Hockey News‘ No. 1 overall prospect, who was held scoreless and finished minus-5 matched against the line of Potulny, Colin Greening and Ryan Keller (two goals).

King and Bud Holloway both finished with a goal and an assist. Jordan Nolan also had an assist. Jones stopped 13 of 16 shots, while Zatkoff stopped 20 of 23.

It was the first Game 7 played at home in the franchise’s 10-year history.

Germain signs with Manchester.

Shawn Germain, who sounded ready to retire after playing his last game with the Reign earlier this month, is lacing up his skates again — in the American Hockey League.

The 28-year-old defenseman was signed to a pro tryout agreement Friday by the Manchester Monarchs. The Monarchs continue Calder Cup playoff action tonight against the Binghamton Senators.

Germain hasn’t appeared in an AHL game since his second professional season of 2006-07. A true journeyman, he’s appeared in 299 games between the ECHL and Central Hockey League in the meantime. In 2010-11 with the Reign, he set a career high for goals in a single pro season (four) despite missing the season’s first two-plus months while contemplating retirement. He also had 10 assists and 23 penalty minutes in 43 games.

Germain’s previous AHL experience consists of one game with the Hershey Bears on Dec. 30, 2006. He went scoreless with two penalty minutes and a plus-2 rating.

Johnson gets the AHL call.

Justin Williams’ misfortune is Chaz Johnson’s good fortune … and the Reign’s misfortune.

Johnson was loaned to the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs on Thursday, the first AHL call-up for Johnson this season. The Reign’s leading goal-scorer (22) scored twice in a 4-3 win over the Idaho Steelheads on Wednesday to prolong the Reign’s chase for the final Western Conference playoff berth. Wednesday’s effort also continued a torrid stretch for Johnson — he’s scored 12 of his goals in his last 21 games after scoring only 11 in his first 39.

Now it looks like the Reign will have to take on the Steelheads on Friday without Johnson.

That’s because the Monarchs were down a right wing when the Kings recalled Oscar Moller on Wednesday. Moller, who ranked second on Manchester in goals and points at the time of his recall, was summoned to the NHL after Kings right wing Justin Williams suffered a shoulder injury Monday against Calgary. Williams isn’t expected to play for at least another four weeks — possibly not until next season — and the Kings will need someone to fill in at right wing in the meantime.

On the surface, that leaves Johnson’s immediate availability in doubt.

Johnson is second on the Reign in penalty minutes (127), tied for second in points (36) and leads the team in shots on goal (156). He’s played 72 AHL games in his career, recording three goals, five assists and 82 penalty minutes, but none since the 2008-09 season.

No practice updates today – it’s the rules. Updates.

The Reign, and the rest of the ECHL, were off the ice today. It’s written into the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association that teams don’t practice during the All-Star Break. With no practice comes no updates, but here are a couple tidbits to pass along:

• Aaron Lewadniuk told me after last night’s game that he is leaving for Bakersfield today. Karl Taylor told me about a month ago that, because Ontario is relatively close to Bakersfield, it was possible that the ECHL would turn to the Reign for any injury replacements simply because it’s easier to get players to the game on short notice. The game is two days away and Lewadniuk, to my knowledge, is still the only Reign player heading north.

• Dusty Collins didn’t play for the Manitoba Moose yesterday, the first time he’s been scratched since being recalled to the AHL a week ago. His name hasn’t popped up on the transactions wire yet, but the player whose roster spot he took – Sergei Shirokov – was just returned to Manitoba by the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday. But … the Canucks also recalled a defenseman from Manitoba, Lee Sweatt. No clear signals on this front.

• I spoke to Kings assistant GM Ron Hextall today about the Reign and the Manchester Monarchs. No Earth-shattering news to relay, but Hextall did say that he considered assigning a top-six-type forward (he didn’t give a name) from Manchester to Ontario at one point earlier this season when that player was struggling. That player turned his season around, however, and stayed in Manchester.

3:30 p.m. update: The Monarchs released defenseman Jordan Hill, who had been on loan from the Reign since December. Manchester doesn’t play a game until Wednesday, while the Reign don’t play until Friday in Utah. For now, pencil Hill in for the road trip – but a lot can happen in four days. Hill had one assist, 19 penalty minutes, and a minus-1 rating in 14 games with the Reign. He had one assist and 15 penalty minutes in 10 games for Manchester.

4 p.m. update: Hill is indeed flying in to Ontario today.

Jones named to AHL All-Star team.

Martin Jones’ ascent through the Kings’ system continued Tuesday with news that he was one of six goalies chosen to play in the AHL All-Star Game on Jan. 31 in Hershey, Pa.

Jones, who started the season with the Reign and recorded his first pro win in his only ECHL appearance, leads all AHL goalies with a 1.75 goals-against average. The 21-year-old native of North Vancouver is second in the league with a .943 save percentage and sports an outstanding 14-3-0 record.

Jones and defenseman Slava Voynov were the only Manchester players chosen to play in the game.

Dwight King’s first NHL stint ends.

Dwight King was assigned by the Kings to the Manchester Monarchs on Wednesday, ending the first NHL stint of any former Reign player.

King, a 21-year-old left wing, went scoreless with two penalty minutes in six games with the Kings. He started on the fourth line, played briefly on the first line, went back to the fourth line, and was not wearing the jersey of any of the top four lines at the Kings’ practice Tuesday.

The move comes one year (actually a year and a day) after he was first promoted from the Reign to the American Hockey League.

Taylor, Pelech on Dwight King.

Karl Taylor and Michael Pelech both exchanged text messages with Dwight King on Tuesday, when King became the first Reign player ever to get an NHL call-up.

(I should point out that Jon Rheault played in five preseason games with the Calgary Flames this season after being invited to their NHL training camp. In terms of regular-season call-ups at least, King’s is the first.)

“We’re very excited for him,” Taylor said. “Hopefully he gets a chance to play, does well. He’s nervous, obviously real excited – a young man getting to chance his dream.”

Continue reading “Taylor, Pelech on Dwight King.” »

Dwight King makes history.

The Kings made left wing Dwight King the first Reign player to be added to an NHL roster on Tuesday, recalling him from the American Hockey League’s Manchester Monarchs.

King was summoned following injuries to a pair of left wings in Los Angeles.

Scott Parse will undergo hip labrum surgery and is expected
to miss 3-4 months. The surgery is expected to
take place next Tuesday in Nashville
and be performed by Dr. Thomas Byrd. Alexei Ponikarovsky fractured a finger Nov. 6 and hasn’t played since, but was finally placed on injured reserve Tuesday.

Head coach Terry Murray said that King figures to slide into Ponikarovsky’s former position at left wing on a line with Michal Handzus and Wayne Simmonds. More in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin.

King was one of nine former Reign players on AHL rosters at the time of his recall: Jon Rheault, Geoff Walker, Bud Holloway, Jordan Nolan, Jeff Zatkoff, Martin Jones, Colten Teubert and Patrick Mullen.

Kings activate Teubert, assign him to Manchester.

Former Reign defenseman Colten Teubert, sidelined since the beginning of training camp as he recovered from off-season wrist surgery, has been activated by the Kings and assigned to the Manchester Monarchs.

Teubert had a goal and three points during a 10-game stint last season, during which he fractured a scaphoid bone in what he called “a routine body check” in a game against the Alaska Aces. A first-round pick by the Kings in 2008, Teubert has never played above the ECHL level. The 6-foot-4 blueliner had one assist in eight regular-season games, and another assist in six playoff games, for the Reign in 2009.