Gulls, Reign Resume Rivalry

Mar 24, 2021

The San Diego Gulls renew acquaintances with their Southern California rival with a visit to the Ontario Reign at Toyota Sports Performance Center tonight (6 p.m.; TV: AHLTV; Radio: Gulls Audio Network). San Diego owns a 35-19-3-2 all-time record against Ontario, including a 17-9-0-2 mark on the road.

The Gulls earned a pair of dramatic wins in the first two meetings between the clubs. In the first, Lukas Dostal made 40 saves to notch his third career victory and Keegan Lowe scored the game-winning goal with five seconds remaining in regulation. The second contest went past 60 minutes, as Chase De Leo scored his second career overtime goal to give San Diego a 5-4 win.

“I felt the rivalry the first time we played in an exhibition game at Honda Center,” said Gulls forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx. “Even at warmups, guys were already going at it and chirping. I know a couple guys on the other side and they were feeling the same way. Even though it’s my first year, I don’t like those guys and they don’t like us. It’ll be a battle.”

San Diego will look to continue on the momentum it gained in a 4-2 win Sunday in Tucson. The Gulls fell behind 2-0 early in the second period but scored four goals in the final period to earn a comeback win. Sam Carrick scored twice while Josh Mahura (1-1=2), Andrew Poturalski (0-2=2), and Benoit-Olivier Groulx (1-1=2) also recorded multi-point performances to lead San Diego offensively. Olle Eriksson Ek stopped 27-of-29 shots to earn his second career AHL win.

“It definitely makes the bus ride a lot shorter when you win the second game,” said Gulls assistant coach David Urquhart. “There’s a lot to build off of in those games. To come out with the win in the second game, we can draw some momentum and carry that into this week.”

Ontario enters play Wednesday looking to climb up the Pacific Division standings, currently tied for sixth (6-11-2-0). The Reign have struggled on home ice early in the season, posting a 3-4-2-0 record at Toyota Sports Performance Center. 

Offensively, the Reign are led by a group of LA Kings top prospects. Rookie Arthur Kalivev co-leads the team in scoring (7-7=14) and goals. Quinton Byfield, the second-overall pick of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, has collected 5-8=13 points in 19 games, but owns the league’s worst plus/minus (-15).

Goaltenders Matthew Vilalta and Jean-Francois Berube have combined for 17 starts in net for Ontario’s 20 games played. Berube leads the team in games played (10), wins (3) and save percentage (.883, min. 2 starts). First-year Reign netminder Troy Grosenick has appeared in two games for Ontario (0-1-1) and earned his first NHL wins in six years earlier this month with the Kings. Rookie Jacob Ingham made his AHL debut for Ontario last week, stopping 34-of-36 shots to earn his first career win.

“Every time we play against those guys, it’s a battle,” said Groulx. “They have a lot of good players. We can’t take them lightly. We’ll have to be ready.”