Game 26: San Diego Gulls @ Ontario Reign – Dec 22

The rematch with the Reign took place in Ontario with a Saturday 3pm face-off and saw Jeff Glass get his first start, owing to Jared Coreau heading to Switzerland for the Spengler Cup. Adam Cracknell is also headed to the tournament, opening a spot for Deven Sideroff to enter the line-up and the second year winger wasted no time acclimatizing. Squaring off with Remshaw (?) to the side of the Gulls net after the first skirmish of the game just under three minutes in. The BC native more than held his own, and quite literally beat down his opponent in what appeared a short, one-sided affair.

After trading power plays for the first eight minutes- mostly due to roughing minors occurring after numerous net front scuffles- the Reign drew first blood on an outnumbered rush that Glass was able to make the initial save on. However, Ontario were able to take advantage of the slow-to-assist Gulls defence and passed it around the zone, eventually finding an open man and a shooting lane that Glass was unable to square up to in time.

San Diego controlled play for much of the next four minutes, including one shift where they executed a perfect on the fly line-change, all while holding the Reign zone as each forward quietly changed out one at a time while shifting the puck around the zone.

Eventually they were rewarded – scoring in similar fashion to the Reign when Matt Berry and Kalle Kossila flew into the Reign zone on a two-on-one. Berry’s shot was stopped by Cambell but Kossila slammed the rebound home for the equaliser.

The period ended with San Diego still controlling play but unable to get a clear opportunity.

The middle frame opened with five minutes of tight checking- and not a hell of a lot of high danger chances- until a Reign chance down low turned into a goal via a bad rebound given up by Glass and an open Ontario player in the right spot to finish.

Two minutes later, with San Diego about to enjoy a man advantage, an errant pass thrown by Carrick missed its intended target and went all the way down into the empty net. A bad break for the Gulls of embarrassing proportions.

Thankfully on the eventual power play San Diego was able to get one back via a tipped Jaycob Megna shot from the point. Sam Carrick with a play that erased his goof just moments before.

San Diego held all the momentum to follow as the game began to open up. Sam Steel had not one but two one-on-one opportunities with Campbell, but was stopped on both occasions, and Troy Terry seemingly had as many shots on net as he had zone entries in the same span.

Less than a minute into the third, the Reign struck again when a point shot was deflected on its way through Glass to give Ontario a 4-2 lead.

The Reign attempted to exert their dominance by upping the physical play, but that backfired as Brent Sutter was called for a late hit on Keaton Thompson, and the Gulls’ suddenly potent power play put one by Campbell from the stick of Andy Welinski.

Two minutes later tensions erupted again as noted shithead Kurtis McDermid lit up Matt Berry with a punishing open ice hit. Berry popped right back up and continued in the offensive play, then finished a hit on the opposite boards that drew a fracas. A lengthy delay followed as penalties were assessed: Berry was tossed – leaving the Gulls down three forwards as Sideroff was yet to return from whatever injury he sustained in his under-card bout, and Gaznic was still sitting the ten he was assessed for his.

Somehow the Gulls came out of it with a five on three, and despite some big saves from Glass on the initial push, the Reign were able to add a fifth goal.

Seconds later – right off the center ice face-off as they looked to kill the remaining major penalty time- Jo Blandisi forced a turnover behind the Reign net and fed Kossila for the quick response shorthanded goal. 5-4 Reign.

The Reign hit right back. Phillip Mailet found open space coming from the point and fired it high over the should of Glass to pad the lead back to two.

Jo Blandisi made matters worse by taking a very stupid slashing penalty as he was bumped off an offensive chance in the Reign zone, sending his team back to the five on three.

The Gulls managed to kill the two man disadvantage. Blandisi joined Kossila on a partial two on one as he exited the box, taking a pass from the Finn and attempting his patented spinorama move but was unable to convert. Less than a minute later, the five minute major was killed and the “Rookie” line came out with a jump to their step. Sam Steel dipped and dove around the Reign net, freeing himself and creating room for his team-mates at the same time. As the Reign drew nearer to him in an attempt to strip him of the puck he sent a neat cross ice pass to Troy Terry at the backdoor who put it home to bring the Gulls back within one. 6-5 Reign with 7:04 remaining.

San Diego carried momentum and hemmed the Reign in their zone for the next two shifts – resulting in a game tying goal from a very excited and overly enthusiastic about letting the crowd know about it – Jo Blandisi.

The Gulls took it to Ontario for the remainder of the period, coming close on a couple of occasions including a last minute backhand shot from Blandisi in the slot at the buzzer, but it wouldn’t go.

San Diego enjoyed the majority of the chances in OT, including an almost breakaway as Terry stripped noted shithead Kurtis McDermid of the puck at the point but the puck was too far ahead of him, and Jack Campbell came all the way out to the blue line to prevent the chance. Then Jo Blandisi drew a hooking penalty as he took the puck down low, giving the Gulls a power-play. San Diego couldnt do much with the man advantage; they had Welinski setup for a perfect one-timer at one point, but he fanned on it and the puck went all the way down to the Gulls’ zone. Neither team could finish this in the extra sesion and to the shootout we went.

Glass was unable to stop the rookie Rempal and San Diego could not convert on their three chances as the Reign rather undeservedly took this one in a 7-6 shootout decision.