After the week's reset, the Reign put in a shift late in Friday night's contest in San Diego. A massive 4-3 overtime win thanks to the contributions of youngsters Adrian Kempe and Michael Amadio. It was what the Reign needed to put their regular season rivals on the brink, and also set up a potential clincher on home ice Saturday night. Check out the recaps and summaries of Lindsay Czarnecki and Sheng Peng for further details on Game 4.
With his two goals in the third period, Adrian Kempe now leads the Reign with 4 goals, while Nic Dowd's own marker added a team leading 8th point to his eight game playoff total.
Despite the win and the upper hand gained in the series, the Reign remain focused on resetting for tonight's massive game. Back to backs with no rest against the Gulls have given the Reign trouble during the regular season, but then again this has not looked like a typical Reign/Gulls match up thus far.
The Difference So Far
To put it simply, the Reign's best players have been as good as the Gulls best players, while bottom line contributions have been much more prevalent for the Reign. Nick Ritchie has tallied just two goals in the series and been a quiet customer for the most part. They have also managed to hold the lethal Brandon Montour down to zero goals and three assists. Chris Mueller, who has points in every game so far in the series, remains the most potent Gulls forward.
More importantly they have altogether neutralized the San Diego powerplay, which was a massive weapon coming into the series. The Reign have managed to kill 14 of 16 powerplay opportunities in the series, good enough for an 87.5 Kill percentage. That leaves the San Diego Gulls with just a 12.5% powerplay success percentage.
The Reign have also gone into San Diego twice, and come away both times with overtime victories. If this series wraps up tonight, the Gulls and coach Dallas Eakins will have to think about how it was a massive opportunity lost on home ice in the series.
As mentioned before, a major difference in this series has been the play of the Reign depth. They have got huge goals from players of a less prominent fanfare. Justin Auger's overtime winner in Game 2 and Michael Amadio's overtime winner in Game 4 are both examples of depth players stepping in and coming up with the goods in a key time. Adrian Kempe has also come to life in this series. There are a lot of little plays coming from guys like Jordan Samuels-Thomas, Kris Newbury, Jeff Schultz, Joel Lowry, and Sam Herr in this series that may not show up on a scoresheet but are making a massive difference.
Lineups (Projected, subject to change)
Coach Mike Stothers shook things up heavily in Game 4 after a fairly lackluster Game 3. As the team took the ice Friday night, their lineup was a bit different from start to finish. Line rushes indicated the Reign would be lining up as follows:
Mersch - Dowd - Kempe
Auger - Amadio - Backman
Newbury - Crescenzi - JST
Lowry - Horvat - Bissonnette
MacDermid - LoVerde
Forbort - Gravel
Schultz - Leslie
Budaj
Houser
The Gulls continue to rotate players on the right wing, and this was how they lined up after a seven defenseman Game 3.
Ritchie - Wagner - Mueller
Laganier - Bailey - Tropp
Cramarossa - Kossila - Kase
Zolnierczyk - MacKinnon - Noesen
Megna - Montour
Cooper - Theodore
Welinski - Piskula
Hackett
Faragher
Both lineups are subject to change and will be edited as things develop.
Keys to the game
The Reign have a massive opportunity to step on the throat of San Diego here, and a good start will be key in that. While the Reign have allowed the first goal in all but one game in this series, it would be nice to not have to play from behind. Nevertheless, this team has become accustomed to that, and the Gulls have played far too tentative with a lead at times. While you never want to get behind early, it is a deficit Ontario has seemingly had no problems with.
Nic Dowd had a huge Game 4, with three points, and the Reign will be looking for him to build on that performance less than 24 hours later. He is a major offensive catalyst, and alongside Adrian Kempe there seemed to be some life. Coach Mike Stothers has talked about Adrian Kempe being a big game player, and this may be the biggest game of the series so far.
You also cannot stress how important it is for the Reign to continue stifling the San Diego special teams. Without that, they have far less of an opportunity to convert. They are suffering from a depleted lineup which may be without Stu Bickel after he left Game 4 injured. Extra man production will be one area where the Gulls have a clear cut advantage in talent and opportunity, otherwise, it has been the Reign dominating the 5v5 play.
Puck drop is at 7:00 at Citizens Business Bank Arena, as the Reign look to press on to the Conference Finals.
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