The Reign lose, 4-1 at the Orleans Arena, but it’s not clear who suffered more in a game featuring TWENTY-NINE penalties.

Perhaps the answer is Las Vegas defenseman Gerard Miller, who was hit with a match misconduct penalty for fighting with Dusty Collins at 9:59 of the third period. It’s not clear why the match penalty was assessed on top of the 5-minute fighting major (I’ll follow up tomorrow) but regardless, it sets up a potentially heated home opener Saturday night between the same teams at Citizens Business Bank Arena.

Backup John Murray got his first start of the season in the middle edition of three games in as many days; expect Jeff Zatkoff to get the call Saturday night. Murray stopped 21 of 24 shots and was outshined by Vegas No. 1 Martin Houle, who also started last night. But Murray couldn’t be blamed for the Reign getting outshot, 33-16.

Jon Francisco had the only goal for the Reign, his second of the season.