Ontario Reign: Three takeaways from 4-1 loss to Calgary

The Ontario Reign couldn’t generate much offense as they fell to the Calgary Wranglers for the 5th time this season on Sunday night.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

ONT: Lias Andersson (20), ASST: Jordan Spence (27), TJ Tynan (45)

CGY: PP Jakob Pelletier (16), ASST: Connor Zary (28), Jeremie Poirier (22)

Second period: 

CGY: Matthew Phillips (24), ASST: Jakob Pelletier (20), Ilya Solovyov (9)

Third period:

CGY: EN Walker Duehr (13), ASST: Kevin Rooney (5)

CGY: EN Ben Jones (10), ASST: None

Stats

Goals:

CGY: 4

ONT: 1

Shots: 

CGY: 32

ONT: 22

Power-plays:

CGY: 1/4

ONT: 0/3

Here are the three takeaways from Sunday’s 4-1 loss:

Lias Andersson is on fire

Lias Andersson had himself one heck of a week. Just like Saturday night, Andersson opened the scoring early in the first period to give the Ontario Reign a 1-0 lead. The goal would be Andersson’s 20th of the season and now puts him in a tie for 6th with three other players for goals scored in the AHL.

It was also Andersson’s 4th goal in three games this past week against the Wranglers. The Reign will hope he can keep up this hot streak as the Colorado Eagles and Tucson Roadrunners come to town this week before the league heads into the all-star break.

Cal Petersen looked sharp

I was shocked Cal Petersen started the second night of a back-to-back as head coach Marco Strum usually gives both Petersen and Matthew Villalta a start in these situations. Last night wasn’t the case as Petersen started both games this weekend. Overall, I thought Petersen played a great game. While the Wranglers scored four goals, two of them were late empty-net goals and the game-winning goal, which was Calgary’s second goal, was scored by Matthew Phillips centering the puck and it went off of Alan Quine and in the net.

The Wranglers started the game with a big push and Petersen made some big saves early on to keep the game scoreless. The Reign didn’t generate much offense through 40 minutes and Petersen kept the Reign in the game. All you can ask from your goalie is to give you a chance and Petersen did just that. Unfortunately, the Reign couldn’t get anything going for much of the game until the third period, but it wasn’t enough.

Big week ahead

A big week awaits the Ontario Reign. Before they head off into the all-star weekend they have three games to play. The first one comes against the Colorado Eagles, who are tied for second in the league in goals allowed. The last two come against the Tucson Roadrunners, who are two points behind the Reign in the standings. All three games will be a test for this Reign group as Colorado has won seven of their last ten games and the Roadrunners have won four straight after losing eight of ten prior to their win streak. It should be a fun, exciting week of Reign hockey.

UP NEXT: The Reign are back in action at home against the Colorado Eagles. The game is on Tuesday and starts at 7 PM PT. You can watch it on AHLTV.

Featured image credit: Mike Zitek/Ontario Reign

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