Reign Preview - Ontario at San Jose
AHL Ontario Reign

Reign Preview - Ontario at San Jose

Published on October 31, 2025 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release


WHO: Ontario Reign (4-2-1-0) at San Jose Barracuda (2-4-0-0)

WHAT: AHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME #8

WHEN: Sunday, October 31 @ 7:00 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 and San Jose Barracuda square off in the first of eight total meetings this season, the first of four in San Jose at Tech CU Arena. It is the first of three consecutive matchups between the two clubs who will play the entirety of their head-to-head season series before the new calendar year.

LAST TIME OUT: Both clubs were in action on Wednesday each losing on the road. For Ontario, they saw their three-game win streak snapped at three games falling 6-2 in Henderson. The Reign took a 2-0 lead midway through the first period on goals from Aatu Jämsen and Jared Wright 31 seconds apart from one another, but Henderson potted six unanswered goals including three in the opening five minutes in a span of 2:27. San Jose suffered a 3-0 shutout loss at San Diego as Ville Husso made 27 saves for the Gulls.

HEAD-TO-HEAD LAST SEASON: Ontario held a 5-3-0-0 record vs. San Jose last season and a 2-2-0-0 mark at Tech CU Arena. San Jose upset Ontario in the first round of the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs defeating the Reign 2-0 on Apr. 24 and 2-1 on Apr. 26 at Toyota Arena as the Barracuda were the six seed and the Reign the third seed. The Reign shutout the Barracuda 4-0 behind a 33 save shutout performance by Carter George in his professional debut. Reilly Walsh scored a pair of goals while Martin Chromiak and Taylor Ward also found the back of the net. The Barracuda outscored the Reign 25-24 as Filip Bystedt and Andrew Poturalski (1-5-6) paced the way in scoring for San Jose while Martin Chromiak (5-2-7) and Charles Hudon (1-6-7) led the way for Ontario. Pheonix Copley went appeared in five games posting a (3-2-0) record with a 3.23 goals-against average and .893 save percentage while Erik Portillo posted a (1-1-0) mark in two contests with a 4.32 GAA and .830 SV%. Gabriel Carriere went (2-2-0) in four games with a 2.16 GAA and .917 save percentage. The Barracuda went (10-for-33, 30.3%) on the power-play while the Reign were (5-for-36, 13.9%).

BETWEEN TWO PIPES: For Ontario, Pheonix Copley suffered the loss on Wednesday allowing six goals on 24 shots. He made 11 saves on 12 shots in the first period but surrendered five goals on 12 shots in the final 40 minutes of play. The six goals given up by Copley were the most in 69 games as a Reign and the third most in his 281 games in the AHL dating back to 2014-15. Erik Portillo has started five of the first seven games and has allowed just two goals against in each of his last four starts making 78 saves on 86 shots, most recently making 13 saves on 15 shots on Oct. 26 in a 5-2 win at Abbotsford. For San Jose, they have alternated between Jakub Skarek and Gabriel Carriere in their first six contests. Carriere suffered the loss Wednesday making 32 saves on 34 shots while Skarek picked up the win last Saturday vs. Milwaukee making 20 saves on 22 shots in a 3-2 victory.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: For the Reign, Jared Wright has goals in back-to-back games while Andre Lee has a three-game point streak (2-2-4). Kenny Connors is still searching for his first professional goal but has tallied three assists through his first seven games and finished with an even or better rating in all seven contests leading the club with a plus-seven rating. Jack Hughes has two assists in his last three games while Taylor Ward has three goals in his last three games and Samuel Bolduc has scored three goals in his last four games. For the Barracuda, Jimmy Huntington has a point in three of five games (1-3-4) while Kasper Halttunen has two goals in his last four games.

END OF A STREAK: During Ontario's three-game win streak they outscored their opponents 13-6. They scored a power-play goal in all three contests going 4-for-16 while surrendering two power-play goals against on nine short-handed deficits. The Reign had outscored their opponents 3-1 in the second period during the win streak and 6-2 in the third period.

GETTING BACK TO OFFENSE AND DEFENSE: The six goals surrendered by Ontario Wednesday night were their most given up in a contest this season as their three allowed in the second period were the most allowed in a single period. Heading into the game the Reign had allowed just two goals against in each of their last five games after giving up five back on Oct. 10 in a 5-4 overtime loss vs. Tucson to open the season. The Reign are ninth in the AHL allowing 3.29 goals-against per game and second in shots against at 23.71. Ontario had scored three or more goals in five of their first six games prior to being held to just two on Wednesday. The Reign have produced 30+ shots in each of their last two games after generating just an average of 20.8 through their first five games. They outshot Henderson 33-24 Wednesday and 31-15 in Abbotsford on Sunday.

SCOUTING THE BARRACUDA: San Jose has struggled to keep the puck out of their own net to start the season as they sit 32nd in the AHL allowing an average of 4.17 goals-against per contest. They've given up six goals in three of their first six games having allowed a league high 12 in the second period. The Barracuda are 22nd in the league when it comes to goal scoring averaging 2.67 goals for per game and sit third averaging 31.67 shots for per game. Luca Cagnoi a fourth-round selection by San Jose in the 2023 NHL Draft leads the Barracuda with 24 shots and has three points (2-1-3) in five games this season after producing 52 points (16-36-52) in 64 AHL games during his rookie year last season and tallying two assists in six NHL games with the Sharks. Cam Lund a second-round selection by San Jose in the 2022 NHL Draft leads the Barracuda with five assists this season in just as many games. He completed a three-year career at Northeastern last season collecting 40 points (18-22-40) in 37 games before ending the season in the NHL registering three points (2-1-3) in 11 games for the Sharks.

Pregame thoughts from Jared Wright

Being on the road

Yeah, it's been a lot of fun, I think, just bonding with teammates, yeah, just eating out with your teammates, getting to know your teammates better. I think it's real good bonding experience for us. And yeah, just trying to get as many points as we can, and they're very important, and hopefully you get to win tonight.

Having goals in back-to-back games

Yeah, it was super nice. But I got to give all the credits to my teammates. I'm playing with unbelievable players, with Dre and with Kenny, so they make it very easy to play with out there. And yeah, I think we're building really good chemistry. And yeah, they're a lot of fun to play with.

Taking pride in being a 200 foot player

Yeah, I think so. Just trying to gain the trust of the coaches being good defensively out there, I want to play in the last minutes of the game and try to get some penalty kill time whenever I can. And like I said before, I mean, their credit goes to my teammates, Dre and Kenny. I think we mix well together, and we're very reliable players out there.

Learning from Andre Lee

I just think the consistency plays with he's physical. Every night brings it. Every night brings the energy, scores when it matters. Just the consistency, I would say, is the biggest part with him. It never seems like he takes a shift or a game off.

Learning the pro lifestyle

I just think the consistency again, just bringing it every night. I mean, it's a fast, physical game, the pro game, compared to college, which where I was before. I just think every night guys are rolling, and if you're not rolling, then you're gonna get scored on, or you're gonna lose the game. And just you got to bring it every night if you want to win.

Takeaways from Wednesday's loss

Yeah, obviously a great start, and something we can build upon. I think it was a good first 12 minutes of the game, and then kind of went off the gas pedal a little bit, and kind of never really recovered after that. And, I mean, yeah, just playing better defensively, being committed to our goalie defensively, I think we can help him out a lot more. And, yeah, I think if we do that, we'll have a lot of success tonight.

His speed

It's little bit of everything, I think, working off the ice, just working on the on speed, and just on the ice as well, working with skating coaches during the summer, I think, has helped me a lot. And I've also been able to play with, like, a lot of fast of fast players growing up, which has helped me, and yeah, I think that's led to a lot of success.

Check out the Ontario Reign Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from October 31, 2025


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