WHO’LL STOP THE REIGN? NOT GULLS

Ontario 4, Gulls 3

The Gulls have gotten the better of their rivalry with the Ontario Reign over the years.

This season has told a different story.

Behind a pair of goals from Martin Frk, the Reign earned a 4-3 victory at Pechanga Arena Saturday night and improved to 5-1 against the Gulls this season.

The teams meet again this afternoon in Ontario.

Bryce Kindopp, Brent Gates Jr. and Trevor Carrick scored for the Gulls (16-202-0) and goalie Lukas Dostal finished with 27 saves.

San Diego is now 41-26-4-2 in the regular season against the Reign.

Ontario (26-9-3-3) jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 4:18 of the

first period when T.J Tynan, who is one of the fastest skaters in the AHL, won the puck in his own end before racing the other way where he flipped a pass to Tyler Madden, who in turn completed a two-on-one by slipping a pass to Frk, whose shot beat Dostal.

The Gulls were hit with three first-period penalties and killed off all three, continuing a trend of excellence on the penalty kill of late.

The problem: all that time spent playing a man down stifles offensive flow and sure enough, the Gulls struggled to create the kinds of odd man rushes and two-on-ones that typically lead to scoring chances.

Aidan Dudas made it 2-0 Reign at 10:18 of the second period when a Gulls turnover resulted in another juicy twoon-one chance which Dudas converted.

The Gulls struck at 16:24 of the second when Kodie Curran laced a crisp pass to the on-rushing Kindopp, who deposited it for his sixth goal of the season.

After Frk scored a second time to make it 3-1 Ontario, Gates Jr. jammed home a shot from directly in front of the Ontario net at 4:29 of the third period to draw San Diego within 3-2.

After the Gulls were unable to capitalize on a pair of power-play chances, Tynan essentially iced the win for Ontario with a power-play goal at 13:34.

Carrick scored an empty netter with just over two minutes to play and the Gulls kept things interesting with a flurry of shots but Ontario held on.

Matthew Villata (25 saves) earned the win in goal for the Reign.

Prior to the game, coach Joel Bouchard talked about the challenge his team faced against the second-place Reign after having won three of four. “We’re going to get challenged against everybody until the end of the year,” Bouchard said. “The focus is on us a lot right now. So, I’m already thinking like, ‘OK, what could we learn from that game tonight’ and stuff like that.”