Ontario Reign: Three takeaways from 2-0 loss to Tucson

Cal Petersen’s 38-save performance wasn’t enough, as the Ontario Reign are shutout for the first time this season in a 2-0 home loss.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

None

Second period:

TUC: Hudson Elynuik (5), ASST: Adam Craknell (19), Cam Dineen (29)

Third period:

TUC: EN Milos Kelemen (11), ASST: None

Stats

Goals:

TUC: 2

ONT: 0

Shots: 

TUC: 40

ONT: 23

Power-plays:

TUC: 0/5

ONT: 0/4

Here are the three takeaways from Friday’s 2-0 loss to Tucson:

Cal Petersen’s third straight quality start

It started good, then bad, and now back to good again for Cal Petersen’s tenure with the Ontario Reign. For the third straight game, Petersen allowed two goals or less and has kept the Reign in the game his last two starts when the offense has had an off night. Cal Petersen was the best player on the ice for the Reign and had to come up with some big saves late in the first period when the Reign were short-handed three times.

Unfortunately for Petersen, Roadrunners netminder Ivan Prosvetov stopped all 23 shots he faced and earned his 5th career professional shutout and the second one against the Ontario Reign. It was the first time the Reign has been shut out this season.

Power play struggles

The penalty kill was excellent for the Reign last night, killing off all five Roadrunner power plays. However, the power play didn’t have the same success and went 0-for-4 on the night. After the first power play attempt, the Reign had only one shot on goal which came from Tobias Bjornfot. Credit needs to be given to Tucson for clamping down a Reign power play that can be lethal at home and not giving them any great scoring chances. Looking back on it, the power play seemed to take away momentum from the Reign as frustration started setting in throughout the night.

Standings update

With this loss, the 5th-seed Reign now has a two-point lead on the 6th-seed Roadrunners and now trails the 4th-seed Canucks by six points. The Reign has two games in hand on the Canucks and three games in hand on the Roadrunners. It will be a tight race the rest of the way as the Reign face the Roadrunners three more times and the Canucks seven times. Buckle up!

UP NEXT: These two teams will square off for the rematch tonight. The game starts at 6 pm PT and can be seen on AHLTV. It will be the final game for the Reign before they head off for the all-star break

Featured image credit: Mike Zitek/Ontario Reign

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