Schmalz Shines as Reign Fall to Gulls in Final Regular-Season Contest

San Diego, CA – The Ontario Reign (44-19-4-1) fell to the San Diego Gulls (39-23-4-2) 3-2 Saturday night at Valley View Casino Center in the final game of the 2015-16 regular season. Forward Matt Schmalz recorded his first professional goal and added an assist in the loss. San Diego Gulls

Box Score

Reign forward Joel Lowry opened the scoring 12:49 into the contest, catching a centering pass from Schmalz and tipping it over the blocker of Gulls netminder Matt Hackett (W, 17 saves on 19 shots). Forward Kris Newbury pushed his personal point streak to six games with the secondary assist. The Gulls responded at 16:57 as forward Corey Tropp smacked his 16th goal of the season behind Reign goalie Michael Houser (L, 40 saves on 43 shots).

In the second period, Schmalz grabbed his first professional goal tipping a shot past Hackett at 9:08 with help from Lowry and forward Ryan Horvat. The third period featured 110 penalty minutes after numerous fights and misconducts and the Gulls responded with two tallies 29 seconds apart to claim their first lead of the contest. Tropp grabbed his second goal of the game on the power play at  14:45 and forward Brian McGrattan buried the game-winning marker moments later. The Reign finished the contest 0-for-4 on the power play while the Gulls went 1-for-5.

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