Yet there was the shooter on Monday, a skinny kid wearing a red jersey and full face shield, putting a puck-between-the-legs move on Darling before flicking his shot up and in. The Reign bench screamed with applause, riled up during one moment of practice as if it were a game.

Clayton Kanemitsu's hockey career is certainly off to a good start.

The 17-year-old from Chino ran through all the drills with the Reign in practice Monday, and his story is just as special as his skills. A center for the Orange County Midget 18AAA squad, Kanemitsu has a team-leading 13 points (six goals, seven assists) and plus-4 rating in 12 games.

He has thrived on ice while dealing with celiac disease, which restricts its sufferers from eating wheat at the risk of severe stomach pains. As a result, he has had difficulty gaining weight and stands 6-foot-1, 135 pounds.

"I've had it all my life but just recently figured out the problem," Kanemitsu said. "I've been gaining a lot of weight lately."

Before he was properly diagnosed, Kanemitsu said he weighed around 90 pounds and stood 5-foot-11. Still, it hasn't kept him from playing hockey.

Reign coach Karl Taylor extended an invitation to practice with the team, as well as tickets to Wednesday's game against the Bakersfield Condors, when he read about Kanemitsu in the Claremont Club magazine.

A senior in high school (Kanemitsu is home-schooled), he would like to enter the United States Hockey League draft in May, "then go to college from there and see what happens. You never know."

Maybe Monday wasn't his last practice in a Reign uniform after all.

Martens moves up

Defenseman Andrew Martens took a turn at forward in all three games last week against the Idaho Steelheads, despite the fact that the Reign had 10 healthy forwards in each game.

And why not? The Reign have been struggling to generate goals, and Martens was an unexpected point producer last season.

In 48 regular-season games, the defenseman had seven goals and 31points. After returning from the American Hockey League for the Reign's first-round playoff series, he had two goals and five points in three playoff games, mostly at forward.

On Wednesday and Friday in Boise, "he created some hits and some good plays, but we didn't get the offense we were looking for from him," Taylor said. "So in game three (Saturday) we switched him back."

Stat-wise, 2009-10 has seen Martens take a step back. In 26 games he has two goals and 10 points.

More importantly for the 28-year-old, he hasn't gotten a call back from any AHL coaches. Martens appeared in 18 games (including two playoff games) for the Toronto Marlies last season, 11 games for the Manitoba Moose, and began training camp with the Moose again this year.

"I'm getting my opportunities to get my points," Martens said. "Our power play's struggling right now. It's all a group thing. A lot of my assists last year were secondary assists. It's not necessarily that plays aren't being made.

"I'm hoping that I can turn it around, but I don't think that I'm playing that bad."

Neither does Taylor.

"He's not hurting our team," the coach said. "If you're not adding to the offense, you better not be taking away from it by making bad defensive decisions."

Voce skates

Forward Tony Voce took part in his first practice since he was placed on injured reserve with a strained MCL.

Other than an expected amount of fatigue, Voce said the practice went well. He could return as early as Wednesday against Bakersfield, but added that all three games this week are still in doubt.

Voce sustained the injury during the exhibition season, then decided to rest the knee when he experienced a recurrence of the pain and hasn't played since Nov. 21.

"I knew that it was kind of bad. Three weeks? No. I figured it would be a week, maybe 10 days. I still don't know - I'm playing it by ear, see what happens.

"Hopefully I can get through the rest of the season without taking any more games off. I don't want it to be nagging me all season, that's why I took a little longer here."

Fire on Ice II

The Ontario Fire Department will host a charity hockey game rematch against the New York City Fire Department on Feb. 6 at The Bank.

The game will begin at 2 p.m. That evening, the Reign face the Stockton Thunder; one $10 ticket is good for admission to both games, with $4 from each ticket benefitting the Muscular Dystrophy Association Fund.