ONTARIO, Calif. -- The Ontario Reign will soon begin to see if their offseason efforts, newly signed players and new head coach will thrive in the way they hope for the 2025-26 season.
The Reign took the 3-2 victory over the San Diego Gulls in their preseason game Sunday afternoon at Toyota Arena.
As of now, Ontario’s preseason roster is composed of 32 players including both returners and new additions.
The returning players include forwards Martin Chromiak, Akil Thomas, Glenn Gawdin, Andre Lee, Taylor Ward, Jacob Doty, Aatu Jamsen, Kaleb Lawrence, Francesco Pinelli, John Parker-Jones; defensemen Joe Hicketts, Jack Millar, Angus Booth and Jakub Dvořák; goaltenders Erik Portillo and Pheonix Copley.
New players include forwards Koehn Ziemmer, Kenny Connors, Kenta Isogai, Jack Hughes, Hudson Schandor, Keaton Mastrodonado, Jared Wright, Cole Guttman, Logan Brown; defensemen Otto Salin, Tim Rego, Kirill Kirsanov, Samuel Bolduc, Parker Berge; goaltenders Mattias Sholl and Isaiah Saville.
Ontario’s new head coach is Andrew Lord, taking over for Marco Sturm who is now coaching the Boston Bruins.
“Lord leads by example, he’s a great coach,” Pinelli said in postgame interviews. “So I’m really excited to start working with him and I think we have a very bright future with the group of guys we have this year.”
San Diego found the back of the net just 1:32 into the first period with a goal from Sasha Pastujov and an assist by Jan Myšák.
A slashing penalty by Parker-Jones handed the Gulls a power play but the advantage didn’t quite work in San Diego’s favor. Instead it resulted in a shorthanded goal by Pinelli to tie the game.
Pinelli said he got in at an angle, was able to intercept the pass and shoot.
Isogai and Doty found Lawrence for a goal in the second period, giving Ontario its first lead of the game.
Myšák tied the score once again with help from Will Francis.
With 5:56 remaining in the game, Chromiak scored the game-winning goal with assists from Pinelli and Hughes.
Although it was a preseason game, Lord emphasized its importance.
“You always want to win. You’re a competitor, we’re a competitive organization,” Lord said in postgame interviews. I think the process is probably the most important from practice, trying to take what we’ve applied to the games and we saw a lot of that tonight. Obviously there’s a ton to clean up but we (have) a good week ahead of us.”
Ontario’s opening night of the 2025-26 season begins Friday against the Tucson Roadrunners at 7 p.m. at Toyota Arena.