Ontario Reign: Three takeaways from 4-0 win against Tucson

Cal Petersen earned his second shutout of the season as the Ontario Reign snapped their 10-game losing streak.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

None

Second period:

ONT: PP Tobias Bjornfot (5), ASST: Taylor Ward (16), Aidan Dudas (17)

ONT: Tyler Madden (17), ASST: TJ Tynan (64), Jacob Moverare (16)

ONT: SH Aidan Dudas (11), ASST: Alex Turcotte (9)

Third period: 

ONT: Martin Chromiak (15), ASST: Nate Schnarr (5), Helge Grans (6)

Stats

Goals:

ONT: 4

TUC: 0

Shots: 

ONT: 31

TUC: 19

Power-plays: 

ONT: 1/9

TUC: 0/4

Here are the three takeaways from Wednesday’s 4-0 victory:

Alex Turcotte returns from injury

After missing the last 15 games due to injury, Alex Turcotte returned to the lineup. Turcotte played on the second line centering Aidan Dudas and Samuel Fagemo, saw time on both power play units, and time on the penalty kill. After observing, I thought Turcotte had himself a good game, playing with great energy. 27 seconds into the game he drew a slashing penalty and had no issues with his skating. He even had a nice steal that led to an assist on Aidan Dudas’ short-handed goal in the second period.

It’s going to be important for Turcotte to stay healthy for the rest of the year as he has been out with injury three times this season. More importantly, it gives the Reign depth at the center position.

FINALLY!

It’s been a while, but the Ontario Reign finally snapped their 10-game losing streak. For the first time in a while the Ontario Reign played a complete 60-minute game and brought the energy from the opening faceoff, an issue that plagued them during the losing streak. One thing that was different from yesterday’s game to Tuesday’s game was the odd-man rushes. The Reign didn’t allow many as the Roadrunners are a team that thrives off of a transition game and puck possession on the cycle. While Cal Petersen only faced 19 shots on goal, he made the saves when needed and looked calm in the net, earning his second shutout this season. The last time the Reign won a game (February 24th), Jonathan Quick was starting in goal for the Kings and Jakob Chychrun was held out of the lineup by the Ottawa Senators for trade-related reasons. It’s been a long time since the Ontario Reign won.

Cold power play

Even though the Ontario Reign snapped their 10-game losing streak, the power play was the lone blemish on the night. Tucson leads the league in penalty minutes, which means you’ll get plenty of opportunities on the power play. Last night the Reign had nine chances on the man advantage and only converted on one opportunity, which came off the stick of Tobias Bjornfot. For the two games in Tucson, Ontario went 1-for-11 (9.1%). Some of the power plays had good puck movement and shots on goal while the rest saw difficult zone entries for the Reign once again. That’ll need to be cleaned up. It’s important to not waste your chances with the man advantage when you have that many opportunities.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign return home to face the Abbotsford Canucks on Friday, March 24th. The game starts at 7 pm PT and can be seen on AHLTV.

Featured image credit: Tucson Roadrunners

 

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *