ONTARIO – Isn’t it wonderful that the Ontario Reign and San Diego Gulls play each other 12 times this season?

Given the way the boys behaved Saturday night at The Vault, in the second night of a back-to-back set, this relationship between the AHL affiliates of the Kings and Ducks is going exactly as planned. No love lost at all, and by the time these players arrive in the NHL, their distaste for the guys on the other side of the rivalry will be firmly in place.

For the record, San Diego won on the scoreboard 3-1 Saturday night, a second straight victory over the Pacific Division leading Reign. Goals by Tim Jackman, Nic Kerdiles and Antoine Laganiere gave the Gulls a 3-0 lead before Adrian Kempe scored his seventh of the year for the Reign.

But the tone was set 2:51 into the evening, when Ontario left wing Paul Bissonnette and Gulls right wing Brian McGrattan dropped the gloves and went at it.

It was not a random incident.

Reign players, as well as Coach Mike Stothers, were irate with McGrattan’s behavior in Friday night’s game in San Diego, specifically a fight with Reign defenseman Kurtis MacDermid in which the Ontario side felt McGrattan fired a couple of extra punches while the linesmen were breaking things up.

Stothers addressed it after the game, as reported by Lindsay Czarnecki on the Reign Insider blog:

“What is surprising to me is the lack of respect McGrattan had for the ‘code of a fighter.’ The (original) hit itself is one thing but why would he throw not one, but two punches, to the face of MacDermid when the linesman had ‘both’ tied up. MacDermid is defenseless at this point and could have been seriously hurt. I certainly would expect better of a guy that was once considered the heavyweight champ of the NHL. Physical is one thing, and a fair fight I can live with, but I can not stomach watching one of my players being taken advantage of, and possibly injured.”

Bissonnette, a veteran of 202 NHL games who had been out the previous six games with a back issue, personally addressed it on his first shift Saturday night.

“If I kind of take him out of the equation, maybe it settles the other guys down a little bit,” he said. “He’s a pretty scary guy. He’s been around a long time. I was just doing my job.”

McGrattan drew a 10-minute misconduct for “inciting” the scrap, in addition to the five-minute fighting major. Later, Andrew Crescenzi dumped McGrattan over the boards and into the San Diego bench, touching off another fracas that ended with the Gulls’ Mike Sgarbossa drawing a double-minor, Crescenzi a roughing penalty and McGrattan another misconduct.

Oh, and did we forget the chirping between Stothers himself and McGrattan?

“I just asked him how his family was,” the Ontario coach said with a hint of a smirk. “He must have read the tweets, I guess, of my postgame comments. I stand by what I said. If he doesn’t like it, too bad.”

McGrattan – a 34-year-old right wing who has played 317 NHL games with Ottawa, Phoenix, Calgary and Nashville sandwiched around a lot of games in the minors – probably didn’t intend to be the face of this rivalry. But hockey’s funny that way.

And Bissonnette’s willingness to engage helps explain why the Kings signed him to an AHL contract in Manchester last season, and why they brought him back this year. These are lessons that can be valuable to younger players, lessons about sticking up for your mates and taking one for the team when needed.

“You talk about a character guy, you talk about a teammate, you talk about a guy you need in your dressing room and on your bench,” Stothers said. “He’s involved the whole game long, whether he’s pumping up our guys or chirping the other team.

“I think (the combination of Bissonnette and Scott Sabourin, another rugged forward) go out and they’re a little reckless. They bang around. It’s exciting.

“You just stand back and say, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen now.’ That’s the beauty of it.”

Just think, there are nine more games to go between these teams, including one more back-to-back to close the season, April 15-16.

Good seats, I presume, will be available.

Contact the writer: jalexander@pe.com