A physical game, and Jack Bauer himself -- Kiefer Sutherland -- was in the building. No terrorist attacks, though. More details in tomorrow's editions.

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."

"What I think is going to be worse than the crowd is if I go behind the net to play a puck, and somebody says, like Geoff Walker calls for the puck, I'm going to instinctively go to pass it to him," Murray said. "I think that might be the difference. They know my weak spots. I know where they're shooting. It's going to be a crapshoot."

"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."

Kids ages 4 to 9 are invited to a free clinic from 12 to 1:30 p.m. All kids who register will get a free ticket to the Reign game on Saturday night (7 p.m.) against the Victoria Salmon Kings.

"They (the Ducks) wanted me to come here and be around their younger guys," Calder, 30, said of how he wound up in Bakersfield, two steps below the NHL in a normal season, "and I think it's a good situation. It's a good atmosphere around here."

Obviously, Calder would prefer to be playing for the Ducks, and that may well happen down the road.

"The No. 1 thing is coming down here, getting in shape and make sure I'm game ready if anything happens," Calder said. "I want to come to work, work hard and see what happens."

Because of the Adam Henrich-for-Landry trade, I didn't have room for the usual depth of game details. Here they are ...

Jon Rheault scored with 9:10 left in the third period to tie the game at 2. He nearly had another in the first period, when he hit the post on a short-handed 1-on-1 rush against Stockton goaltender Bryan Pitton.

Landry, 25, began the season with the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans, but appeared in just one game before he was released. In six games for Cincinnati, Landry collected one assist and 13 penalty minutes.

a) You're blind and hard of hearing, or
b) It's because there's little more than one minute left in the period, and you know the announcer is going to announce "there's one minute left in the period!" CBBA's Reign announcer, Jeff Pope does a very diligent job of this, and for acknolwedging the crowd's "thank you" in response.

I mention this because longtime Edmonton Journal hockey writer Jim Matheson addresses this phrase's very existence in the game here. Scroll down a bit for his answer to a reader's question.

After being sent down by the Kings' AHL affiliate, where he played just two scoreless games this season, Walker was practicing in Ontario for the first time Tuesday.

"They wanted me to come here and play some games, get back into playing games every day and being a regular game player, instead of being in and out," Walker said. "I would have to say I'd rather be here playing some games, getting myself back into game shape, instead of not playing up there. You can backskate all you want, but it's not the same as a game."

So here they are:

Monarchs Assign Walker To Ontario

MANCHESTER, NH - The Manchester Monarchs, the primary affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, have assigned forward Geoff Walker to the ECHL's Ontario Reign, Monarchs Director of Hockey Operations Hubie McDonough announced today.

Walker, 21, appeared in two games with the Monarchs and recorded zero points and two penalty minutes. He led the Reign with 48 points (21-27=48) during the 2008-09 season. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound native of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island spent three seasons (2005-08) with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Prince Edward Island Rocket. Walker registered 196 points (83-113=196) and 213 penalty minutes in 168 games with the Rocket.

Also, be sure to check out tomorrow's editions for an in-depth look at King and Pelech, the two Kings prospects in town this year.

David Walker scored short-handed for the Reign's only goal and Zacharias, making his second start in as many nights, stopped 24 of 26 shots.

Even though the Reign finished their home-opening weekend 1-2, the mood after the game was fairly upbeat. The Reign matched Las Vegas' energy for 60 minutes despite playing three games in three nights.

More details in tomorrow's editions.

Adam Henrich and Dwight King scored on deflections off long shots by defensemen, and Jon Rheault scored into an empty net in the final seconds.

The route to victory was similar to the Reign's method of last season: They were outshot (33-24) but limited their opponent's Grade-A scoring chances, while working hard for their own. Karl Taylor said after the game that the team is still searching for its identity, but Saturday appeared to be a step in the right direction.

The Reign's postgame jersey auction fetched $27,000 for the Frontier Project. Shawn Germain ($2,150) sold for the highest.

More details in tomorrow's editions.