Ontario Reign Advance to the AHL Western Conference Final
- Updated: May 15, 2016
Please play the YouTube video below so it can play in the background while you are reading this article.
For the second straight season in a row, the baby Kings aka the Ontario Reign (formally the AHL version of the Manchester Monarchs) have advanced to the American Hockey League’s Western Conference Final after defeating their SoCal rival San Diego Gulls’ (aka baby Anaheim Ducks) in 5 games.
After bombarding the Gulls with shots in a scoreless first period (and throughout the series), the Reign opened the game up with the first goal of the game by Joel Lowry (not Mike Lowry from the Michael Bay “Bad Boy” films, though that would’ve been cool too), after the Gulls’ goaltender Matt Hackett accidentally passed the puck to him while trying to clear the puck from behind his own net. It was Lowry’s second goal of the playoffs.
The Gulls came back shortly by taking advantage of a 3 on 2 and tied the game at 1 after forward Chris Wagner scored by blasting the puck past Reign MVP and goaltender Peter Budaj “The Jedi.” Nick Richie was awarded with an assist but seconds later, the Reign counter-attacked immediately when the game 4 overtime hero, Mike Amadio set up the game 2 overtime hero, the 6’7 tall mountain of a man, (not Game of Thrones but he is from my local neighboring town of Waterloo, ON and both the fictional fantasy Westeros and Waterloo start with the same letter, so close enough), Justin Auger scored with a game-winning wrist shot to put the Reign back into the lead and they never looked back.
Amadio came close to adding another goal for the Reign in the 3rd period after a set-up by Adrian Kempe but he hit the post. In the final minutes of the game, struggling Reign forward Sean Backman was penalized for tripping Gulls’ defenseman Shea Theodore to give the Gulls’ the extra man advantage. With nothing else to lose and desperate to stay alive, the Gulls pulled Hackett and gained another extra skating attacker and attack they did, with nothing but pure furiously but Budaj strongly held the fort, (along with a little help from his friends in Michael Mersch and Nic Dowd, who sacrificed their health by blocking some big shots) and the Reign held on to win the game 2-1, in front of the pumped up (and all dressed in black) Ontario Reign faithful. Despite the low and close score, the Reign dominated the Gulls completely in this game and in the series and never seemed to really be in any trouble, (things also didn’t help the Gulls either when they lost their regular starting goaltender and NHL veteran Anton Khudobin and center Michael Sgarbossa to injury).
With Captain Vincent LoVerde, Dowd, Mersch, Kempe, Amadio, Kevin Gravel, Derek Forbort, Jeff Schultz (remember him?), Budaj and coach Mike Stothers leading the way, the Reign have an amazing opportunity at getting another crack at lifting up the Calder Cup. Especially if Backman can find a way to get his groove back (not Angela Bassett), Like as the Monarchs last year, the Reign are going to be a hard team to beat in a seven game series.
The Reign next play game 1 of the Western Conference Final at home at the Citizen Business Bank Arena on Saturday, May 21, against the winner of the second round series between the Lake Erie Monsters and the Grand Rapids Griffens, (not Peter Griffen and family). My best case scenario, hope and dream is for the Reign to make the Calder Cup Final against the Toronto Marlies, just so I can locally go on the Reign Train and support and cheer on the boys in person, but for now, let’s take it one step at a time and get through the Conference first, (but I’m already giving you the stink eye Toronto, you know, just in case!)
The Los Angeles Kings might be done for the season but there is still a championship to be won for the entire Kingdom so go support the baby Kings everyone and let’s paint the AHL all in black!
Let’s go Reign!!!
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!
Related Posts
About Jeff Duarte
