Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 4-1 Victory Over San Diego

The Ontario Reign extended their win streak to six games with a 4-1 victory over the San Diego Gulls on Friday night.

Goal Breakdown

First period: 

SD: PP Cal Burke (5), ASST: Stian Solberg (12), Roland McKeown (20)

ONT: Nikita Alexandrov (15), ASST: Kenny Connors (25), Martin Chromiak (27)

Second period: 

ONT: PP Martin Chromiak (28), ASST: Nikita Alexandrov (40), Logan Brown (14)

ONT: Nikita Alexandrov (16), ASST: Kenny Connors (26)

Third period: 

ONT: PP Kenny Connors (15), ASST: Logan Brown (15), Martin Chromiak (28)

Stats

Goals: 

SD: 1

ONT: 4

Shots: 

SD: 24

ONT: 31

Power plays: 

SD: 1/4

ONT: 2/5

Here are the three takeaways from Friday night’s 4-1 victory: 

A night off for some sees others get prominent roles

Glenn Gawdin, Cole Guttman, Joe Hicketts, and Jack Millar were among several players who were given the night off due to rest. With Ontario having the division secured, there was a possibility some players would be rotated out of the lineup to get a game off for rest purposes, and that is what happened.

For some players, last night was an opportunity to see them take on a bigger role despite there not being anything meaningful standings-wise in this game. Players who normally wouldn’t see power play time, like Jack Hughes, Angus Booth, and Henry Brzustewicz, were given shifts on the power play.

Kenny Connors, who was the number-one center with Gawdin out of the lineup, tallied three points (1 G, 2 A) for his first three-point game of the season. The 23-year-old’s remarkable rookie campaign continued as he has 41 points in 65 games.

Alexandrov doesn’t finish the game

With these final two regular-season games being meaningless, the last thing the Reign wanted was a potential injury to one of their top players. Unfortunately, the Reign could have been dealt a huge blow with a possible injury to one of their top-six forwards in Nikita Alexandrov.

Alexandrov, scoring a goal for his third point of the night late in the second period, went crashing into the boards behind the Gulls’ net and was down in pain for what seemed like a minute. With the help of the trainers, Alexandrov skated off the ice down the tunnel into the Reign locker room and didn’t return.

Whether Alexandrov didn’t return due to injury or out of precautionary reasons remains to be seen. I expected him to have the night off in the season finale, but now it looks more likely that will be the case. If there is some good news for the Reign is that they have a week off due to winning the division and getting a bye in the first round, allowing time for Alexandrov to heal if his injury isn’t severe.

Slukynsky stellar in net again

Hampton Slukynsky got his second professional start and looked just as good as his first one a week ago. Slukynsky, or as some call him by his nickname “Hammer”, turned aside 23 of 24 shots to pick up his second straight win as a professional.

Just as he looked in his first start, the 20-year-old netminder showed calm and poise between the pipes. Those two traits showed in the second period when he turned aside Judd Caulfield’s short-handed breakaway bid.

With a goalie pipeline headlined by Slukynsky and Carter George, the Kings have a lot of promising talent in the net.

Photo credit: Ontario Reign

NOTES:

*The Reign recorded their 47th win of the season.

*Martin Chromiak recorded his seventh point in four games against the Gulls this season.

*Brendan Gorman made his professional debut after signing a PTO (professional tryout) on March 30th.

*Logan Brown recorded his fourth two-assist game of the season and has nine points in his last nine games.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign conclude their 2025-26 season with a home game against the Abbotsford Canucks tonight. The puck drops at 6 PM PST and can be seen on FloSports or KCAL+ (channel 9.6). You can also listen to the game on the Ontario Reign Radio Network or on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Ontario Reign

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *