Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 7-3 Victory Over Colorado

The offense came out flying with four power-play goals as the Ontario Reign kept their hopes of claiming the second seed in the division alive.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

ONT: PP Alex Turcotte (8), ASST: Samuel Fagemo (19), Brandt Clarke (35)

ONT: Samuel Fagemo (43), ASST: TJ Tynan (56), Brandt Clarke (36)

ONT: PP Alex Turcotte (9), ASST: Akil Thomas (23), TJ Tynan (57)

Second period:

ONT: Taylor Ward (10), ASST: None

Third period:

ONT: Taylor Ward (11), ASST: Tyler Madden (19), Akil Thomas (24)

ONT: PP Alex Turcotte (10), ASST: Joe Hicketts (19), Ryan Bednard (1)

COL: Peter Holland (13), ASST: Jean-Luc Foudy (9), Sean Behrens (1)

COL: PP Ryan Sandelin (6), ASST: Jason Polin (6), Corey Schueneman (16)

ONT: PP Nikita Pavlychev (6), ASST: Samuel Helenius (11), Andre Lee (5)

COL: Cedric Pare (14), ASST: Wyatt Aamodt (8), Riley Tufte (22)

Stats

Goals:

ONT: 7

COL: 3

Shots: 

ONT: 37

COL: 27

Power plays:

ONT: 4/5

COL: 1/2

Here are the three takeaways from Saturday’s 7-3 victory:

Alex Turcotte returns and nets a hatty

Alex Turcotte was up with the LA Kings during the Reign’s previous game and found himself loaned back to Ontario on Friday. In the past, when Turcotte returned from injury head coach Marco Sturm would normally put him at the second-line center and move Francesco Pinelli to wing. With Pinelli playing well over the past month, Sturm decided to put Turcotte on the first line with TJ Tynan and Samuel Fagemo at the left wing position. It was the first game in a while Turcotte started at wing.

Any time Turcotte has played, he has always been noticeable. You see the play-making abilities and play-driving when he has the puck up ice. Last night, Turcotte found the scoresheet for different reasons. Turcotte netted three power-play goals, two of them in the first period with him parked in front or at the side of the net for a rebound or tap-in goal.

That second goal of Akil Thomas’ pass back door to Turcotte could be a good combination on the Kings next year. By night’s end, Turcotte completed the hat trick in the third period with his breakaway goal on the power play for his 10th goal of the year. That scoring could be helpful for the Reign as their playoff series starts Wednesday.

Big-name players step up

The Reign have gotten contributions from up and down the lineup and sometimes won games as their depth players scored timely goals. They didn’t need that last night. It was all about the top players. Ontario got multi-point games from six different skaters. Tynan recorded two assists, Fagemo got a goal (his 43rd) and an assist, Turcotte got a hat trick, Thomas recorded two assists, Taylor Ward recorded two goals, and Brandt Clarke recorded two assists. Getting contributions from everyone come playoff time can lead to a deep run for the Reign.

Speaking of Clarke, how does 11 points in the last 11 games sound? Looking like the Clarke we saw from November and December when he was putting up points consistently.

Playoff opponent is still unknown

We’ll find out after today’s Reign game who they will face in the first round. If the Reign win, they’ll grab the second seed and face the Calgary Wranglers. If the Reign lose, they’ll settle for the third seed and play the Bakersfield Condors. From what I heard on the Colorado Eagles broadcast during the game was that if the Reign play the Condors, the series will be 1-1-1, with game two being in Bakersfield and the other two games in Ontario. Usually, the higher seed will have all three games in the first round played in their arena, but with the teams close to one another traveling-wise, game two will be in Bakersfield. This has happened in first-round series in the past if the two teams are close enough where they can travel.

In addition to the Reign having something to play for, Colorado will be fighting for home-ice advantage. If they win, they’ll face Abbotsford in Colorado, but if they lose they’ll have to travel to Abbotsford. Both teams have something to play for today and it should be interesting.

NOTES:

*The Reign are 7-for-9 on the power play in their last two games. They are tied with the Texas Stars for the number-one power play in the AHL at 21.9%.

*Alex Turcotte recorded his second career AHL hat trick. Both have come against Colorado (5/9/21 was the other hat trick).

*Samuel Fagemo recorded his 43rd goal of the season. He’s one goal behind Adam Gaudette for the league lead (44).

*Brandt Clarke’s two-assist night gives him 46 points in 49 games. He’s one point behind Logan Mailloux for the lead league in scoring for rookie defensemen (47).

*Ryan Bednard started his first AHL game of the season and picked up the win and a secondary assist.

*Taylor Ward’s two-goal game gives him ten on the year.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign conclude their regular season with a rematch of last night’s game against the Colorado Eagles this afternoon. The game starts at 2:05 PM PT and can be seen on AHLTV.

Featured image credit: Colorado Eagles

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