Reign 4, Victoria 3.
Tony Voce, Jon Rheault, Dwight King and Robert Pearce scored goals, and Reign goalie Curtis Darling outshone former Reign goalie John Murray, stopping 33 of 36 in his second start in as many nights.
Said Karl Taylor, "we gutted it out."
"We weren't perfect," the coach said. "That was a hard game for us to win. Every time we got a two-goal lead, (Victoria) pushed back. They're trying really hard to get off this slide. We were very fortunate. I never felt safe. We were very happy to get that win and get out of Dodge."
The Reign aren't totally out yet. They have to play the Alaska Aces (6-3-1), winners of two straight one-goal games over Stockton, at 5 p.m. Sunday, and will rest up rather than skate in the morning.
King added a clutch blocked shot while the Reign killed off a 5-on-3 power play for the second straight night. Ontario's PK unit, which entered the game ranked fifth in the ECHL, finished 9-for-10.
Darling had to stand on his head at times; even he couldn't remember how many times he stopped Olivier Latendresse during a frantic sequence of rebounds and putbacks midway through the second period (it was four by my count).
"It was a little bit of both (skill and luck)," he said. "Bounces go both ways -- we've scored a couple on ourselves this year, and we hit a couple posts tonight."
Rheault's short-handed goal was the second for the Reign this season. It was almost more of a 4-on-4 goal; a Victoria player broke his stick on a one-timer from just inside the Reign blue line, allowing Shawn Germain to break out 2-on-2 with Rheault, who snapped home a rebound off Germain's one-timer with 59.1 seconds left before the first intermission.
Voce had a busy game early and a quiet one late. In addition to scoring the game's first goal, he was sent to the penalty box for unsportsmanlike conduct for some comment(s) made to an official, setting up the Salmon Kings' lone 5-on-3 power play in the middle period.
"It's a very undisciplined play, and (Voce) knows that," Taylor said. "As a team we can't be making those. Shane (Warschaw) is trying his best. There's lots of calls both ways, good, bad, whatever, the ref's doing the best job he can. We just have to deal with it and shut our mouths."
Voce didn't finish the game on the ice or on the bench -- more details on that in tomorrow's editions.
Victoria falls to 1-10-0, further into ECHL oblivion, with a remarkable two points to show for its first 10 games. I asked Murray -- who was applauded during pregame introductions -- about his new team before the game.
"Victoria's a great town; we're just waiting to find one thing to push us out there," he said. "Try to get us going on a streak. Right now we're struggling a bit. We need to find our identity. Once we get one, we'll get a few, then things will figure themselves out."