The Ontario Reign gave up four third-period goals and dropped their 6th straight loss of the 2022-23 campaign.

Goal Breakdown

First Period:

No Scoring

Second Period:

ONT: Tyler Madden (6) ASST: Lias Andersson (9), T.J. Tynan (27)

Third Period:

SJ: Thomas Bordeleau (16) ASST: Patrick Sieloff (6), Darren Brady (3)

SJ: Darren Brady (1) ASST: Artemi Kniazev (10), C.J. Seuss (8)

ONT: T.J. Tynan (4) ASST: Lias Andersson (10), Samuel Fagemo (4)

SJ: Thomas Bordeleau (17) ASST: Artemi Kniazev (11), Scott Reedy (8)

SJ: Will Riedell (1) ASST: Jeffrey Viel (4)

STATS:

Goals

ONT: 2

SJ: 4

Shots

ONT: 30

SJ: 33

Powerplay

ONT: 2/4

SJ: 1/5

THREE THINGS TO DISCUSS

A tough loss continues a bad run

The Ontario Reign have dropped their last six games to bring their record on the season to 15-13-0-1. The Reign were strong in the opening of the season, holding on to second place in the divisional standings. They now stand at a 4-6-0-0 record over their last 10 games and have fallen to sixth. A points percentage of 0.534 is not going to cut it for the rest of the season as Ontario begins to fight to stay in a playoff spot.

The Ontario Reign have a silver lining in this sea of darkness as they hold at least five games in hand over the two teams below them in the standings. The next 43 games are going to be a slog for the Reign if their play continues to decline as it has been.

Cal Petersen is officially becoming a problem

Petersen has lost four straight starts in an Ontario Reign jersey, surrendering 16 goals in that span while making 118 saves; his save percentage over those four games is .880, a save percentage that really isn’t even good enough for an AHL starter. It’s unclear what’s happened to the heir apparent to the LA crease, but it’s getting worse as time goes on. Against the Barracuda last night, Petersen himself was given a tripping penalty that resulted in a power-play goal. That goal would stand up as the game-winner before the Barracuda iced the game with an empty netter.

A deeper dive into the Reign’s goaltending shows that there are deficiencies that have not been fixed in net with pickups of free-agent goaltenders. Cal Petersen and Mathew Villalta have not kept the Reign in enough games for the wins to pile on. It takes time to build a goaltender into a starter worthy of the NHL, but the alarms will start sounding if the Reign’s struggles in net continue.

Digging for Depth

One of the struggles of an AHL hockey team is the fact that good players are likely to get called up to the NHL or traded to another organization fairly regularly. It becomes harder and harder to find players who will stick in the league as they get older. Players like TJ Tynan and Martin Frk are rare and they are not always available for every team. Though goal scoring for the Reign is down, they are getting contributions throughout the lineup and the depth of play they are showing is getting to be something to be proud of. Aside from Tynan’s continual ability to dish the puck, the Ontario Reign is getting contributions from players who are proving themselves invaluable to the team.

Jordan Spence currently sits with 22 points on the year (2-20) and  Lias Andersson has 19 points (9-10). While this level of contribution is, overall, a bit low, it’s at least comforting to see that there aren’t just one or two players that are hitting the score sheet in Ontario. The Reign currently has 8 players above 10 points on the campaign and if this continues, the Reign could have at least 10 players who are sitting with 30-40 points. Contribution like that, combined with even acceptable goaltending and a bit of puck luck could turn Ontario’s season around from here going forward.

 

The Ontario Reign is back in action Sunday afternoon against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The game starts at 3:00 PM PT and can be seen on AHLTV. See you there Reign fans!

Feature image credit: Mike Zitek/Ontario Reign

 

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