Ontario Reign hockey is back! (kinda)
Much like their NHL brethren, the Reign are wrapping up preseason action this weekend. Following Ontario’s 4-3 overtime win on Friday vs. San Diego, they’re travelling to Coachella Valley today for an early evening affair at Acrisure Arena.
Even though tonight is an exhibition and the results won’t count in the standings, there is still very likely to be a little extra juice on this one compared to most preseason contests.
Plenty of players on each bench will remember exactly what happened the last time they got together.
It was the Firebirds eliminating the Reign in double overtime of a winner-take-all playoff game last spring. Coming off a regular season where Ontario won the Pacific Division title with a franchise-best campaign, coach Andrew Lord and his squad certainly didn’t expect to be bounced in the Calder Cup Playoffs semifinal round. All involved were counting on the club going on a much deeper run. That didn’t happen and today will mark the first time both sides will be seeing each other since that heartbreaker last May.
In a storyline that few saw coming, Erik Portillo is expected to start today’s game for the Reign.
Portillo: Where Does he Fit in to the LA Kings Plans This Season?
That in and of itself is some pretty significant news for a number of reasons. First, Kings GM Ken Holland has spent most of the summer flirting with the idea of LA beginning the season with three goalies. As we reported earlier today, Portillo was sent down to the AHL this morning, after not seeing any preseason action with the big club.
After playing tonight, he could still conceivably be recalled to the NHL. Thus, this very much could be a one-and-done scenario.
Conventional thinking would have the Reign starting goalies — Hampton Slukynsky and Carter George — get some final tune-up time today. But with five pro goalies in the organization and only four spots total between the NHL and AHL, there is a shortage of games for each goalie to play in.
Also of note is that the Reign are set to open their 2026-27 regular season with back-to-back games next Friday and Saturday, in what will be a home-and-home series with the Firebirds — which should definitely be a heated set.
Looking at the rest of the Reign roster, several training camp cuts have been made this week, with a handful of guys sent to the ECHL. While these moves were pretty much planned out all summer, there are still a few roster decisions to be made, especially at forward, where Lord has more than a few options at his disposal right now.
Reign Projected Lineup
While we don’t have the exact lines and pairings heading into tonight’s game quite yet, we project it will look something like this.
Jamsen – Pederson – Chromiak
Pinelli – Connors – Wright
Ward – Guttman – Ziemmer
Cihar – G. Slukynsky – Doty
Booth – Brzustewicz
Woolley – Millar
Hicketts – Mastrodomenico
Portillo
George
Likely scratches: (F) Gorman, Hughes, Isogai, Lawrence, Percival, Shea (D) Kirsanov, Perunovich and (G) H. Slukynksy
Injured: (F) Jenik (D) Dvorak, Salin
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. There will be not be a stream or radio coverage of the game tonight. However, all regular season games will be streamed via FloSports and a Reign radio feed is typically available here.
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Where’s angus booth at? Did he stay up with the kings?