Reign 4, Salmon Kings 1. Updates with postgame quotes.
The Reign snapped a two-game losing streak behind goals from Andrew Martens, Tony Voce, Peter Lenes and newcomer Jon Landry. Goaltender Curtis Darling stopped 24 of 25 shots in his first start since Oct. 30.
"I think we played hard again, and we played smart," coach Karl Taylor said. "We buried our chances for the most part, which was a difference from Wednesday. We'd like to have more shots, but we'll take the win. Right now we're trying to climb a little bit. WE like the way our team is playing, and the direction we're heading. We feel as a team that we got rewarded today based on Wednesday's effort, Sunday's effort. We finally got a little fruit for our labor. It's a small step forward, but we've got to get ready for tomorrow."
David Walker had a pair of primary assists and got into a big fight with Mike Burgoyne in the first period at 11:45 of the first period. Four minutes later, Andrew Martens snuck in the backdoor and took a great pass from Tony Voce to pot the game's first goal.
Olivier Latendresse tied the game at 4:51 of the second period on a power play; both teams went 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
Voce scored at 8:26 of the second, getting good tic-tac-toe passing from Geoff Walker, to David Walker, to Voce on a breakaway. It was the fourth goal of the season for Voce -- not the third, as tomorrrow's print editions will show -- because Taylor changed the goal credited to Geoff Walker on Wednesday to Voce after reviewing the game video.
The crowd gave a warm hand to Landry after he blasted home a slapshot at 13:18 to make it 3-1.
Lenes' third goal of the season completed an odd-man rush with Dwight King, who showed a deft touch on his long left-to-right pass to Voce in the slot at 8:16 of the third.
The standout performance belonged to Darling, who had a week between games while Mike Zacharias tended goal for the Reign. Darling faced two shots in the first, 10 in the second, and 13 in the third -- almost the ideal situation for a goaltender looking to get re-acclimated. He got help at one point in the third period from Shawn Germain, who fell headlong to the ice to block a puck headed for an open net.
"I thought our team did a really good job of protecting me in the first period, keeping everything to the outside," Darling said. "(Victoria) pushed really hard (in the third period). They made some plays, we got lucky, Germ (Shawn Germain) made a good save right there, otherwise it's a different game. I don't think the score is a reflection of the type of game it was tonight. I thought it was a pretty tight game. If things go differently there, it's a whole different third period. We weathered the storm well."
Former Reign goaltender John Murray didn't see any game action for the Salmon Kings, though it looked like he might late in the first period after Jon Francisco accidentally clipped Glenn Fisher in the helmet with the butt end of his stick. Blood poured from the goalie's nose -- which might have been broken on the play -- but Fisher cleaned up his face, returned to the crease, and cleaned the blood off the ice before finishing the game.