Ontario Reign at Tucson Roadrunners

The Ontario Reign’s winning streak stops at eight as they drop their first game in regulation to the Tucson Roadrunners.

All good things must come to an end and in this instance, it was the Ontario Reign’s eight-game winning streak that is no more. Tucson scored eight goals en route to an 8-4 win, delivering the Reign their first regulation loss of the season and dropping their record to 9-1-0-1. The Roadrunners improved to 4-4-1.

Game Recap

The lineup for the first of two in Tucson:

The Reign were a little slow out of the gates in this one, with Tucson getting the first six shots on goal and the first goal. On a 3-on-2, Terry Broadhurst made a cross-zone pass to Cameron Hebig at the right-circle who put it past a sprawling Matt Villalta:

Just 36 seconds later, though, Ontario would tie things up:

The Reign would string a few good shifts together and get the game’s first power-play because of it. While they didn’t convert with the man-advantage, Jacob Moverare would put home a shot from the high slot after great work by Alex Turcotte to regain possession of the puck:

The lead wouldn’t last two minutes as Tucson would take advantage of another odd-man rush. Hudson Fasching dished to Jan Jenik who was streaking down the left-wing, he made a nice move to beat Villalta and tie the game.

As entertaining as the first period was, it wouldn’t hold up compared to the second which saw five goals and a fight.

Ontario would take the lead on Aidan Dudas’ third goal in as many games:

Once again, the Roadrunners would respond quickly. They got two breakaways less than a minute apart shortly after the Dudas goal. They scored on both of them, with Matias Maccelli getting the first and Michael Carcone netting the second.

Former Reign Boko Imama would give the Roadrunners a two-goal cushion as yet another odd-man rush led to a Tucson goal.

Of the five goals the hosts scored, three were odd-man rushes and two were breakaways. They were also enough to chase Villalta as he was pulled for the first time this season.

Ontario would get an opportunity to get back into the game with a major power play thanks to this ugly hit from Hudson Elynuik on Dudas:

The power-play was ineffective but Ontario would get one late in the period as Martin Frk put home a Vladimir Tkachev pass:

In what was a penalty-filled third period, Tucson scored three power-play goals to put the game out of reach.

Just 32 seconds into the period, Maccelli picked up his second of the game on the power-play. A little under seven minutes later, the Roadrunners would put the dagger in as Janis Moser scored a power-play goal of his own.

Maccelli completed his hat-trick with a wrister from the left circle 13:46 into the final period.

It was far from the Reign’s best effort. Despite leading twice in this one, they were much too loose at the back end leading to a significant number of odd-man rushes. This coupled with a poor night on Special Teams was a recipe for disaster.

Shot Attempts

at Tucson Shot Attempts For Shot Attempts Against CORSI CF%
All Strengths 44 48 -4 47.8%
All Strengths HD 18 22 -4 45.0%
5v5 30 34 -4 46.9%
5v5 HD 10 16 -6 38.5%

Box Score

The full box score can be found here.

Thoughts and Takeaways

  • Special Teams did not do Ontario any favors. They were 0-for-4 on the power-play (including a major penalty) and they were just 2-for-5 on the penalty kill.
  • The hit Dudas took was a pretty ugly knee. Fortunately for the Reign, Dudas was able to return to the game in the third period.
  • Jacob Doty had a long fight after the hit on Dudas. He also picked up his first point of the season on the Sutter goal. His point now gives every Reign skater that has suited up for a game this season has at least one point.
  • The numbers weren’t pretty for Villalta (five goals against on just 11 shots) but all five of the goals against came off the rush. While it’s perhaps fair to say he wasn’t quite as sharp in this one as he has been, tough to get on him for these. Garret Sparks made eight saves on ten shots in relief.
  • Jordan Spence was a bright spot. He had two assists and led the team with five shots on goal.
  • Turcotte had a pretty strong game, also picking up two assists. He’s making a lot of little plays that may go unnoticed. His effort on the Moverare goal was crucial and he was instrumental on Frk’s goal as well. It’s nice to see that his work ethic is paying off on the scoresheet.
  • This game got very chippy in the third period with 13 combined penalties. We’ll see if there’s any carryover into Saturday night.
  • It was good to see that, without hesitation, with each questionable hit thrown against a teammate, Reign players jumped right in to defend. It happened a bit too frequently, but they did what they had to do.
  • The two teams will be back at it on Saturday night, 6 p.m. from Tucson and can be seen on AHLTV.
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3 thoughts on “Takeaways from the Ontario Reign’s 8-4 Loss to the Tucson Roadrunners”

  1. They’ve played so well so far that they may have been due for a stinker. To me, the goal less 5min major against Tucson was the turning point. We battled to within one but when Tucson scored that 7th goal, took the steam right out of them. They were chippy to get something going but it wasn’t to be. Wrobo needs to get it in their heads that let downs are unacceptable then put Villalta back in goal to redeem himself. GO REIGN.!!

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    2. I agree the major PP was a chance to get one. But hey, they weren’t going 82-0 right! Let’s get back in the W column tonight

      Reply

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