Preseason Final: Ontario Reign 2, San Diego Gulls 4

On Thursday, the Ontario Reign dropped their first of two preseason games with San Diego Gulls 4-2.

First, the box score.

The full box score is here.

The Gulls controlled much of the game, outshooting the Reign 39-28, but Ontario did take a 2-1 lead into the third period.

Jacob Ingham started in goal for the Reign and stopped all 20 shots he saw before coming out midway through the second period in a pre-planned setup for him and John Lethemon.

Here’s how the Reign were originally set to line up, but a late change was made as Samuel Fagemo was inserted into the lineup in place of Nikita Pavlychev:

Tonight’s @ontarioreign lineup vs. San Diego

Madden – Tynan – Frk
Burke – Dudas – Johnson
Sodergran – Sutter – Doty
Gerads – Pavlychev – Brett Kemp
 
Gaunce – Spence
Phillips – Grans
Russell – Kasastul
 
Ingham
Lethemon

— Jared Shafran (@ShafReign) October 8, 2021

We’ll monitor the Pavlychev situation to see the reason for him being a late scratch.

The Gulls were certainly the better team in the opening 20 minutes. They outshot the Reign 15-6 and owned a 28-16 advantage in shot attempts. There wasn’t much on the Reign side of things to hang your hat on, except for the play from Ingham, who was sharp throughout the period.

The second period didn’t go much better for the Reign from a shot standpoint. They were outshot 13-10 and out-attempted 28-22. But they did walk out of the period with the lead.

Shortly after Lethemon came into the game, the Gulls got on the board as Jacob Perrault tipped in a Nikolas Brouillard shot:

Perrault scores for SD.

Gulls lead 1-0 @ontarioreign pic.twitter.com/FeO27pnq7e

— Hockey Royalty (@Hockey_Royalty) October 8, 2021

The Reign headed to the power-play shortly after going down a goal. And from the right circle, Aidan Dudas fired a bullet past Olle Eriksson Ek:

Aidan Dudas rifles one into the back of the net. 1-1@ontarioreign pic.twitter.com/nVqHa6Gn7n

— Hockey Royalty (@Hockey_Royalty) October 8, 2021

The Reign took the lead late in the second period off of a very nice faceoff play. Johan Sodergran threw the puck at the net, and it was tipped in what appeared to be Jordan Spence:

Looks like Jordan Spence got a piece of this one. Either way, @ontarioreign lead 2-1! pic.twitter.com/IMuwWLuDsB

— Hockey Royalty (@Hockey_Royalty) October 8, 2021

The third period was played a little bit tighter, but the Reign could not generate much in the way of sustained zone pressure. The Gulls out-attempted Ontario 21-17 in the final 20.

Alex Limoges tied things up for San Diego on a breakaway:

Lethemon was again victimized by an extremely unfortunate bounce on the Gulls’ go-ahead goal:

San Diego would add an empty netter with 10 seconds remaining.

The two teams will get together again on Monday, October 11th at 7 pm (PT) from Honda Center for one final tune-up before the regular season.