Friday night will bring game three of an eight-game season series between the Ontario Reign and Tucson Roadrunners. Over Thanksgiving weekend, the two clubs split a pair of games in SoCal, and now they’ll play two more in the Arizona desert.
In the aforementioned Reign victory, coach Marco Sturm utilized a top line of Alex Turcotte, Quinton Byfield, and Tyler Madden — with Byfield notching two goals and Turcotte assisting on one of them, plus adding a goal of his own. After playing together for several weeks, Turcotte then missed a few games due to illness. Although he slotted back in last game, Sturm had him on the third line. For tonight, we’re projecting Sturm to reunite that line by flipping Turcotte and Lias Andersson.
Defensively, Ontario’s bench boss will likely rotate Kim Nousiainen out, as he continues to juggle his blueliners on a fairly regular rotation.
With back-to-back games in Tucson this weekend, we’re also expecting Sturm to split the goaltending responsibilities equally between Cal Petersen and Matt Villalta. Look for the former to likely get the start in game one.
ONTARIO REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. TUCSON ROADRUNNERS
Turcotte – Byfield – Madden
Quine – Tynan – Ward
Andersson – Kupari – Dudas
Lee – Helenius – Thompson
Moverare – Spence
Gaunce – Grans
Bisson – Allard
Petersen
Villalta
Game scratches: Chromiak, Nousiainen, Wagner
Recalled to NHL: Bjornfot, Fagemo
Out injured: Thomas, Doty
Puck drop is scheduled for 6pm PST tonight and the game can be viewed on AHL TV.
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