Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 5-3 Victory Over Bakersfield

The Ontario Reign took down the Bakersfield Condors in comeback fashion at Toyota Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

None

Second period:

BAK: Noah Philp (6), ASST: Josh Brown (3), Cam Dineen (5)

ONT: PP Charles Hudon (7), ASST: Samuel Fagemo (7), Reilly Walsh (8)

ONT: Charles Hudon (8), ASST: Glenn Gawdin (14), Jeff Malott (16)

BAK: Jacob Perrault (1), ASST: None

Third period:

BAK: Philip Kemp (3), ASST: Noah Philp (5)

ONT: Martin Chromiak (5), ASST: Reilly Walsh (9), Francesco Pinelli (6)

ONT: Joe Hicketts (1), ASST: Martin Chromiak (5), Jakub Dvorak (3)

ONT: EN Jeff Malott (3), ASST: Charles Hudon (8), Joe Hicketts (13)

Stats

Goals:

BAK: 3

ONT: 5

Shots: 

BAK: 29

ONT: 26

Power plays:

BAK: 0/1

ONT: 1/3

Here are the three takeaways from Sunday’s 5-3 victory:

Third-period rally

The Reign had a record of 1-8 when trailing at any point in the third period entering the weekend. The weekend is over and that record improved to 3-8. The Reign got the victory on Saturday trailing 1-0 entering the final frame in a shootout win against the Gulls and found themselves trailing 3-2 near the halfway mark of the final 20 minutes.

For the second straight game, the Condors coughed up a third-period lead. Chromiak tied the game up in front of the net after Collin Delia whiffed with his stick trying to play the puck safely into the corner after a Reilly Walsh dump in.

Less than seven minutes later, captain Joe Hicketts, who Marco Sturm said was ‘banged up’ entering today’s game and still played, scored his first goal of the year by jumping into the play and pouncing on a rebound lying in the crease after a Martin Chromiak chance, giving the home team a 4-3 lead. The Reign buckled down defensively in the final 2:25 and Jeff Malott added an empty-net goal to seal the game.

Good teams show resiliency, fight, and find ways to win. The Reign did that twice this weekend and got four big points in the standings.

A trio forming chemistry

Chromiak and Francesco Pinelli have played on a line together for the last six games and sporadically before that. Those two seem to complement each other’s game. Pinelli can create with his east-to-west skating, which allows him to find Chromiak open for his one-timer abilities. Then throw in a player like Taylor Ward to add sandpaper to that line. It adds a little of everything.

“I think we have good chemistry. We can find each other pretty good. Also, with Wardo [Ward], we keep building it up [chenistry] each game.” – Chromiak on his chemistry with Pinelli and Ward.

All three players were on the ice for the game-winning goal. Chromiak and Pinelli showed their chemistry on the play with Pinelli slipping the puck behind the Condors’ defense, finding Chromiak for a chance alone in front of the net that saw Hicketts follow up the rebound for the goal.

If that line keeps playing the way they have the last three games the points will come.

Fourth line rotation

Sturm rotated players on the fourth line this week. Jacob Doty replaced Kaleb Lawrence in the lineup in Ontario’s 5-3 loss to Texas, which moved Aatu Jamsen to center. With Andre Lee returning to the Reign he replaced Doty (played on the second line and Tyler Madden moved down to the fourth line). Yesterday was Lawrence’s turn to play in favor of Jamsen. When asked after the game, Sturm said they wanted to get ‘some fresh legs’ in the lineup.

“We just wanted to rotate a little bit and get some fresh legs in the lineup.” – Sturm on the rotation of the fourth line.

I can’t entirely agree with the rotation idea because Jamsen and Lawrence won’t be playing every game, it looks like the Reign will do this more often than not as long as the roster is healthy. Who sits next game is TBD.

NOTES:

*The Reign improved their record to 2-1-0 over the Condors this season.

*Five different skaters had multi-point games for the Reign.

*Chromiak recorded his first goal in ten games and has four points in the last five, while Pinelli has three points in his last three games.

*Charles Hudon recorded his second multi-goal and three-point game of the year. He was named the third star of yesterday’s game.

*Sturm on Jakub Dvorak playing in the World Juniors:

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign don’t play until Sunday, December 15th, against the San Jose Barracuda. The start time for that game is at 5 PM PST. You can watch it on KCAL+ (channel 9.6) and FloSports. You can also listen on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Mike Zitek/Ontario Reign 

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