After a quick two-game sweep for the Ontario Reign, they will now square off against the Abbotsford Canucks in a best-of-five series.
Abbotsford is coming off a hard-fought series against the Colorado Eagles, going all three games, and to add on, the final two went to overtime.
As for the Reign, they were firing on all cylinders in game one of the Bakersfield series, scoring five goals in the win.
Game two was much more competitive, but in the end, Ontario had the clutch gene to pull away with the series finale.
In this matchup, the first two games will be played in Ontario, with the last three being played in Abbotsford.
Here’s the schedule
Game 1 - Abbotsford at Ontario - Wednesday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m. PST
Game 2 - Abbotsford at Ontario - Sunday, May 5 at 3:00 p.m. PST
Game 3 - Ontario at Abbotsford - Wednesday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. PST
Game 4* - Ontario at Abbotsford - Friday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. PST
Game 5* - Ontario at Abbotsford - Sunday, May 12 at 4:00 p.m. PST
*if necessary
What’s interesting is that the Reign do not have home-ice advantage, even though they are the higher seed.
Canucks play by play announcer Brandon Astle tweeted that Ontario actually chose to play the first two games at home, allowing Abbotsford to have the last three in their rink.
This decision sounds shocking at first, but when you take a dive into the numbers, it could pay off.
The Reign’s power play at home ranks 18th in the league, and their penalty kill ranks 30th. While on the road, their power play and penalty kill is drastically better, ranking 1st and 6th.
Overall, the Reign just play much better on the road, for whatever reason.
Just like the Bakersfield series, this matchup is no slouch. In the regular season, the Reign were 4-3-1 against Abbotsford, winning the last two contests.
One name instills fear into everybody involved with the Reign, and that is Sheldon Dries.
In six games against the Reign this season, Dries has an astonishing nine points. Five goals, four assists, and nightmares.
When you take a look at his career stats when dueling Ontario, it only gets scarier. 16 goals, 11 assists, and 27 points, which involves a hat trick.
Linus Karlsson and Arshdeep Bains are also names to watch for in this series. They have had great success versus Ontario within the last few years.
The Canucks penalty kill ranks 3rd in the league, so it will be interesting to see how they matchup with the Reign’s power play, which ranks 2nd.
As obvious as this sounds, Erik Portillo needs to stay on top of his game if the Reign has hopes to move on.
Portillo was spectacular in the first round against Bakersfield, turning away 53 of the 55 shots that came towards him in that series.
Tyler Madden will look to continue his hot streak. He put up three goals in the first round, the most of any player in the AHL.
In addition, Taylor Ward and Joe Hicketts also had a strong series against Bakersfield, putting up multiple points in the winning efforts.
Samuel Fagemo was kept very quiet in round one. It seemed as though the Condors just swarmed the left side of the ice on the power play, which is where Fagemo does most of his damage.
If the Canucks follow that same formula, it is going to be a long series for Fagemo, and possibly the Reign as well.
Also, Marco Sturm elected to play his heavyweights against Bakersfield, since they are known to play aggressive in all three zones on the ice.
Expect Martin Chromiak and Francesco Pinelli to play over some of the bigger guys, which I would expect to be Hayden Hodgson, Nikita Pavlychev, or Samuel Helenius.
The Canucks are a team with more skill and speed, so playing all the heavyweights will not work in this series.
It’s a very interesting matchup. On paper, the Reign are far more talented. On the other hand, the Canucks successful penalty kill unit can definitely neutralize the Reign.
My prediction is that the Reign will win in four games. Top to bottom, the Reign just have more, and that goes along with great goaltending. The team is an absolute wagon right now, and I do not see a team like Abbotsford being able to unrail the Reign train.