REIGN PREVIEW 11/15 – Ontario at San Jose
WHO: Ontario Reign (8-5-1-0) at San Jose Barracuda (6-5-1-1)
WHAT: AHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME #15/72
WHEN: Saturday, November 15 @ 6:00 Pacific
WHERE: Tech CU Arena – San Jose, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FloHockey – AUDIO: Reign Radio – TWITTER: @ReignInsider & @OntarioReign

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Ontario Reign wrap up a three-game road trip while the San Jose Barracuda are back home after playing five straight games on the road.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Tonight marks the fourth of eight total meetings between Ontario and San Jose, the second of four in San Jose. The Reign hold a 2-1-0 mark vs. the Barracuda including 1-1-0 at Tech CU Arena. Ontario’s biggest win of the season came in San Jose back on Oct. 31st in a 6-1 victory where Jack Hughes, Jakub Dvořák, and Kenny Connors all scored their first professional goals while Koehn Ziemmer tallied his first professional point finishing the game with two helpers. The six total goals in the contest is a season high while the four in the second period are a single period high. The Barracuda picked up a 4-2 win the following night to wrap up the back-to-back series then three nights later Taylor Ward scored 63 seconds into overtime for a 2-1 win at Toyota Arena. Ward leads all skaters in the series with four points (3-1-4). Ontario is just 1-for-10 on the power-play against the Barracuda and 5-for-8 on the penalty kill.

LAST TIME OUT – ONTARIO: The Reign fell 3-2 in Calgary on Wednesday night a night removed from defeating the Wranglers 5-1. The Wranglers led 2-0 until Akil Thomas got the Reign on the board from Martin Chromiak with 3:10 left in the second period then Jakub Dvořák tied the game from Francesco Pinelli and Kenny Connors 7:10 into the third period. Calgary would take a 3-2 lead on the power-play just 1:53 later. Ontario was outshot 32-23 in the loss while going 0-for-4 on the power-play and allowed their fourth short-handed goal against of the season.

LAST TIME OUT – SAN JOSE: The Barracuda saw their three-game winning streak ended on Wednesday night falling 4-3 in a shootout at Abbotsford. San Jose led 2-0 early into the second period on goals from Lucas Carlson and Quentin Musty (PP) but the Canucks potted a pair in 5:14 in the front half of the second period tying the game before Colin White regave the Barracuda the lead with 5:04 left in the middle frame. Abbotsford tied the game at 3-3 with 1:16 to play on a six-on-four strike and would take the extra point in a four-round shootout.

BETWEEN TWO PIPES: For the Reign, Erik Portillo left Wednesday night’s game 2:51 with an injury as Pheonix Copley made 27 saves on 30 shots in relief suffering the loss. Copley made 28 saves in the 5-1 victory on Tuesday snapping a personal three-game losing skid. Isaiah Saville was re-called from loan yesterday from the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits. He has appeared in five games with the Swamp Rabbits this season posting a (3-2-0) record with a 2.59 goals-against average and .925 save percentage after missing the entirety of last season due to injury. For the Barracuda, Jakub Skarek was re-called by the San Jose Sharks on Thursday but returned yesterday. Skarek made 27 saves on Wednesday for his first shutout of the season as he has won three of his last four games. Matt Davis was re-called from loan Thursday from the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder. Davis has a (2-5-2) mark in nine appearances for the Thunder with a 2.67 GAA and .923 SV%. Gabriel Carriere suffered the loss on Wednesday making 28 saves on 31 shots in the 4-3 shootout defeat as he is (2-0-2) in his last four starts.

INDIVIDUAL NUGGETS – REIGN: Kenny Connors has a point in back-to-back games (1-2-3) and two goals in his last four games. He leads all AHL rookies with a plus-11 rating while he is tied for second among all league skaters. Akil Thomas has a point in four of his last five games (2-4-6) after having just two assists in the previous seven games and leads the club with 11 points (4-7-11). Jakub Dvořak (1-1-2) and Francesco Pinelli (0-2-2) each have points in two straight games while Aatu Jämsen has three points (1-2-3) in his last four contests.

INDIVIDUAL NUGGETS – BARRACUDA: Cam Lund is tied for first among AHL rookies with eight assists while Igor Chernyshov is tied for second with six goals. Chernyshov, Kasper Haltunen, and Quentin Musty are tied for first among league rookies with three power-play goals each. Musty has seven points (2-5-7) in his last six games after having just three (1-2-3) in the first seven games. Colin White has seven points (3-4-7) in his last seven games where he’s tallied a point in six games. Lucas Carlson has a goal in back-to-back games while Igor Chernyshov has six goals and one assist in his last five games including a hat-trick on Tuesday.

 WHAT TO WATCH FOR ONTARIO: Ontario has yet to lose back-to-back games this season as they are 5-0 when following a loss. In three of their six losses this season they have been held to just two goals while they have scored four or more goals in six of their eight contests as they’re outscoring their opponents 33-19 during five-on-five play. The Reign have scored just two first period goals in their last six games. They’re 0-for-8 on the power-play in their last three games but 10-for-11 on the penalty kill in their last four contests. Including tonight, it will mark the ninth road contest of Ontario’s last 11 games as they will play six of their next seven games on home ice.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR SAN JOSE: After starting the season just 2-5-0 San Jose has a point in six straight games (4-0-1-1). The Barracuda have scored three or more goals in three of their last four games including tying a season high in a 7-0 win on Tuesday at Abbotsford. During their last five games they’ve outscored their opponents 19-8 in regulation. San Jose is third in the AHL averaging 31.85 shots for per game having only been outshot in three times this season. The Barracuda are third overall in the AHL on the power-play (15-for-55, 28.6%) including fourth on home ice (9-for-33, 27.3%) but they’re dead last on the penalty kill overall (31-for-46, 67.4%) and 31st at home (15-for-23, 65.2%).