Alaska 2, Reign 1.

The Reign were noticeably closer to victory Friday than they were in a
6-3 loss to Alaska on Wednesday night. But as head coach Karl Taylor
noted afterwards, “there are no moral victories this time of year.”

The loss – though it was a close one – leaves the Reign two points
behind the Las Vegas Wranglers for the National Conference’s final
playoff berth, with four games left in the regular season.

Tim Kraus scored the lone goal, and Curtis Darling stopped 20 of 20
shots after Mike Zacharias allowed two goals in 18 minutes.

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

Morning skate: Tremblay out, Knapp in.

Defenseman Luis Tremblay was off the ice at Wednesday’s morning skate, the result of the same lower-body injury that kept him out of Sunday’s game against the Idaho Steelheads, head coach Karl Taylor said. Taylor said that Tremblay was in uniform Sunday “in case we needed an extra body.” Defenseman Dan Knapp took part in the morning skate and it appears he will be in the lineup against the Alaska Aces tonight.

Tim Kraus, who has missed back-to-back games with an undisclosed injury, was wearing the red practice jersey usually reserved for non-contact players. The center is eligible to come off IR, and Taylor said he has not decided whether or not Kraus will play. Peter Lenes skated again and looks ready to go if Kraus cannot.

Reign 7, Idaho 4.

The Reign jumped out to a rare 5-0 lead, enabling them to withstand a four-goal third period by Idaho in a game with plenty of implications in the standings.

Seventh-place Utah won, meaning a loss would have kept the Reign three points back of the National Conference’s final playoff berth.

Now seven teams are separated by one point each for the final six playoff positions: Bakersfield (71), Victoria (70), Las Vegas (69), Alaska (68), Stockton (67), Utah (66) and Ontario (65).
Continue reading “Reign 7, Idaho 4.” »

Las Vegas 4, Reign 3, shootout.

Another night, another shootout.

This time, Las Vegas got the only goal and walked away with the victory.

For the second night in a row, Karl Taylor switched goaltenders, pulling Curtis Darling in favor of Mike Zacharias for the skills competition. Zacharias stopped four of five shooters, but it wasn’t enough. Joel Gistedt, who replaced an injured Michael Ouzas in the third period, stopped all five Reign shooters to seal the victory.

Jon Rheault scored for the second straight night and Tim Kraus and Sean O’Connor also had goals for the Reign. Mick Lawrence, Adam Miller and Chris Neiszner scored for the Wranglers. Ned Lukacevic had the only goal in the shootout.

Darling stopped 28 of 31 in regulation.

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

Las Vegas 7, Reign 6, shootout.

This game could be summed up in one word: Crazy.

It ended in the 12th round of the shootout when Jerry Pollastrone scored on Curtis Darling, and Tony Voce missed on the other end, ending the Reign’s team-record-tying win streak at six.

The Reign gained a point in the standings but gave up two, leaving both teams tied for the seventh and final playoff position in the National Conference standings. Technically, the Wranglers are in seventh place by virtue of the higher winning percentage.

It was only possible because of Vegas’ four goals in the third period, which negated a 5-2 lead by the Reign and sent the game to overtime.

Continue reading “Las Vegas 7, Reign 6, shootout.” »

So what happened to that offensive slump?

If you believe that momentum carries over from one game to the next, you’ll like this trend: During their four-game winning streak, the Reign have scored 4, 5, 6 and 7 goals, respectively. The Reign probably won’t need 8 goals to beat the Utah Grizzlies tonight, but if the trend continues, they’ll probably take it.

This offensive about-face comes on the heels of another, less desirable trend. In the six games prior to last Friday’s 4-1 win over the Idaho Steelheads, the Reign were averaging just 1.7 goals per game. The lone win in that stretch was a 5-3 victory over the Stockton Thunder; take away that game and their goals-for average was a paltry 1.0.

What has been the difference?
Continue reading “So what happened to that offensive slump?” »

Reign 7, Utah 3.

Greg Hogeboom notched the first official regular season* hat trick at The Bank – his third three-goal game of the season – and the Reign won their fourth straight game.

“The score didn’t reflect how the game really went. It was a close game. We managed to get ahead of them in the third (period) quickly after they scored to tie it up 3-3. Four games (winning streak, we haven’t had that too often this year,” Hogeboom said.

Some other stat sheet heroes: Tim Kraus had four assists, Mike Egener had a goal and two assists, Tony Voce scored two goals, Robert Pearce had a goal, Mike Pelech had two assists. Curtis Darling stopped 28 of 31 shots and the Reign never trailed, scoring the game’s final four goals after Utah came back to tie.

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

*Bud Holloway scored three goals April 11, 2009, in a 6-5 loss to the Stockton Thunder in Game 2 of the playoffs.

Reign 6, Bakersfield 4.

The Reign came back from a 3-1 first-period deficit, and a negated goal in the third period, to beat the Pacific-Division leading Condors.

Sean O’Connor scored the game-winner with 2:41 left in the third period. Greg Hogeboom, Tony Voce, Tim Kraus and Jon Francisco also scored, and Mike Egener could have had a two-goal game if not for a disallowed goal with 12:23 left.

Goaltender Curtis Darling got his third win in as many days, stopping 19 of 23.

Robert Pearce had three assists and Michael Pelech and Mike Howe each collected a pair of assists.

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.