SALMON KINGS FALL TO THE REIGN

Ontario Reign opened a two-game set with 4-1 victory Friday over the Victoria Salmon Kings in California.

The Salmon Kings started Glenn Fisher in net while the Reign countered with Curtis Darling.

The first period was a penalty-filled affair with referee Jarrod Ragusin assessing 10 minor penalties.

The Reign were the only team to take advantage with the extra attacker as Andrew Martens received the final pass on a tic-tac-toe play that began when Jon Landry took the puck off the face-off win and found Tony Voce in the slot on the right hash marks.

Voce quickly found Martens diving down from his left point position, and the Ontario defenseman tipped the puck in for the 1-0 lead. The Reign held that lead going into the first intermission.

Olivier Latendresse knotted the score at 1-1 just 4:51 into the second period on the powerplay when he took a feed from Chad Painchaud from the left point into the right faceoff circle and fired a quick wrist shot past Darling. Latendresse’s marker was his third of the season.

The Reign regained the advantage at the 8:26 mark of the middle frame when Tony Voce connected on a 3-on-2 break beating Fisher over his blocker from the left faceoff circle.

Voce’s goal was his third of the year. Ontario took a two-goal advantage on a 3-1 goal from defenseman John Landry who fired a shot from the right point that eluded a screened Fisher over his blocker and into the net. Landry’s goal was his first of the year, and gave the Reign a two-goal lead heading into the third period.

Peter Lenes extended the Reign’s lead to 4-1 at the third period’s 8:16 mark when he streaked down the middle of the ice and tipped home his third goal of the season past Fisher’s glove from Dwight King. Lenes’ goal was his third of the season and rounded out the scoring for the game. Reign 4 Salmon Kings 1.

Victoria finished 1/4 = 25.0% on the power play while Ontario went 1/5 = 20.0%.  The Salmon Kings out shot the Reign 25-17.

The Salmon Kings and Reign meet again tonight to complete their two-game set at the Citizens Business Bank Arena. Victoria returns to the Save-On-Foods-Memorial Centre to take on the same Ontario team next week with games on Wednesday, Friday, November  and Saturday.