Ryan Durham 
The Ontario Reign beat the Henderson Silver Knights for its third straight win on Wednesday, tying Stockton for tops in the Pacific Division with 62 points.
GOALS:
1st Period:
16:35 ONT- Jaret Anderson-Dolan (19) ASST: T.J. Tynan (49), Jordan Spence (32)
🚨 This deflection by JAD put us in front late in the opening period! pic.twitter.com/5DgUiQn5Su
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) February 24, 2022
2nd Period:
1:06 ONT- Martin Frk (25) ASST: Tyler Madden (16), Helge Grans (11)
My goodness, @Frky91! What a shot! 💪💪 pic.twitter.com/yUxQvr2PbW
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) February 24, 2022
3rd Period:
4:28 ONT- Tyler Madden (14) ASST: Vladimir Tkachev (16), Christian Wolanin (8)
5:01 HSK-Pavel Dorofeyev (18) ASST: Layton Ahac (1), Paul Cotter (8)
18:30 ONT- T.J. Tynan (10) ASST: Rasmus Kupari (2), Cameron Gaunce (10) (EN)
SHOTS:
ONT: 32
HSK: 23
POWER-PLAYS:
ONT: 2/2
HSK: 0/2
Three Takeaways from Ontario’s win against the Silver Knights:
1. Burying chances
The Reign weren’t exactly jumping early on in the 1st period. In fact, after eight minutes, Ontario had only recorded one shot on goal. However, as it so often goes with these guys, they flipped a switch when Sven Baertschi went off for tripping at 15:18.
The AHL’s top power-play took the ice and went to work. Gabe Vilardi deflected a hard shot on goal from Jordan Spence off the post that was eventually pushed over the goal line by Jaret Anderson-Dolan.
Later with just over a minute gone in the 2nd, Tyler Madden made a slick cross-ice pass to Martin Frk, who fired the puck past Jiri Patera for his 25th of the season. Thus, in some respects against the run of play, Ontario showed us how easy the game can be when you capitalize on your chances. If only there was a nearby NHL affiliate that could do that more often…
2. Major difference in double minors
Both Ontario and Henderson were awarded four-minute double minors, but only the Reign were able to take advantage. Matthew Villalta made several key stops to keep the Silver Knights off the board on their double minor, whereas Tyler Madden beat Patera on a hard slap shot from outside the right circle to give Ontario a 3-0 lead.
3. Improving Penalty Kill
Ontario has steadily improved its penalty kill over the last few weeks and now sits at 77.6 %, good for 25th in the AHL. In fact, going back to last weekend’s double-header against San Diego, the Reign have killed off their last 9 penalties.
Going back even further, the Reign have killed 27 out of 30 penalties in their last eight games. Continuing in this direction would be a huge boost for a squad that finds itself in a real dogfight with Stockton for the Pacific Division.
Next up: Ontario Reign at Tucson, February 26th, 7:00 PM PT.