Ontario Reign: Five Takeaways From 5-4 SO Win Over San Jose

The Ontario Reign battled back from a two-goal deficit to win in a shootout over the second-place San Jose Barracuda.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

ONT: Charles Hudon (9), ASST: Glenn Gawdin (16)

Second period:

SJ: PP Danil Gushchin (2), ASST: Andrew Poturalski (13), Filip Bystedt (8)

SJ: PP Lucas Carlsson (5), ASST: Jack Thompson (2), Ethan Cardwell (10)

SJ: Thomas Bordeleau (6), ASST: Scott Sabourin (5), Ethan Cardwell (11)

Third period:

ONT: Samuel Fagemo (12), ASST: Angus Booth (6), Arthur Kaliyev (1)

ONT: Shawn Element (5), ASST: Aatu Jamsen (3), Tyler Madden (7)

SJ: Ethan Cardwell (2), ASST: Andrew Poturalski (14), Thomas Bordeleau (3)

ONT: Aatu Jamsen (3), ASST: Tyler Madden (8), Shawn Element (3)

Overtime:

None

Shootout:

Round one:

SJ: Danil Gushchin – NO GOAL

ONT: Arthur Kaliyev – GOAL

Round two:

SJ: Andrew Poturalski – NO GOAL

ONT: Taylor Ward – GOAL

Round three:

SJ: N/A

ONT: N/A

Stats

Goals:

SJ: 4

ONT: 5

Shots:

SJ: 30

ONT: 46

Power plays:

SJ: 2/3

ONT: 0/3

Here are the three takeaways from Sunday’s shootout victory:

Game one for Kaliyev

The road back to the LA Kings lineup is a long one. Last night was a start for Arthur Kaliyev, who hadn’t played in a game since last season. After suffering an injury in a training camp scrimmage, the Kings loaned him to Ontario for a conditioning assignment. The 23-year-old played on the second line with Jack Studnicka and Samuel Fagemo. As expected, Kaliyev showed some rust to start due to not playing in a long time; or in his words after the game, ‘forever’.

Overall, his first game results weren’t bad. Kaliyev recorded a secondary assist, committed an interference penalty in the second period, scored a shootout goal on his backhand, was firing the puck in the third period, and was on the ice for a goal for and against, where he didn’t pick up Thomas Bordeleau in front of the net which led to an easy goal for San Jose. As he gets more playing time we should see him be more comfortable.

Down but not out

Ontario’s record when trailing after 40 minutes was 2-6. That’s not a good record, but one of those wins happened to be against the Barracuda on the opening weekend when Samuel Helenius scored twice in the final two minutes to give the Reign the win.

This time, instead of trailing by one entering the third period, the Reign trailed by two. Ontario came out firing the puck toward the San Jose goal after getting away from their game in the middle frame. Samuel Fagemo pulled the Reign within one at the 4:19 mark, re-directing the puck in front of the net on a shot that came from the left point off the stick of Angus Booth.

The fourth line decided to get in on the fun 1:33 later as Aatu Jamsen found Shawn Element all alone in the slot for his fifth goal of the year, and first in eight games, to tie it at three. The Barracuda would re-gain the lead less than four minutes later on Ethan Cardwell’s third point of the evening.

However, like the third goal, the fourth line tied it up again as Jamsen followed up the rebound on Tyler Madden’s shot to tie the game at four. All three players from the fourth line had a multi-point game for the Reign and they were buzzing in the offensive zone all night and were rewarded with two goals.

Getting goals from your fourth line is always a good thing. Another good thing for the Reign is they are finding more ways to win. Great teams show character and resiliency and the Reign have done that these last three games when trailing in the third period, and twice after 40 minutes. To rally like that against a second-place team in the division is also a good thing.

Ward and Portillo play hero in the shootout (again)

The Reign have gone to a shootout twice in the last week and have come away victorious in both. The Barracuda shot first and chose Danil Gushchin. Gushchin got stopped by Erik Portillo, then went off the post and on top of Portillo’s left pad, who was on his belly. Kaliyev shot for the Reign in their first shootout attempt and scored on the backhand glove side on Georgi Romanov.

Andrew Poturalski’s attempt got denied by the left pad of Portillo, which set the stage for a Reign win. Marco Sturm tabbed Taylor Ward to win it for the Reign and he did by going to his signature glove, far-side shot off the post and in. Ward and Portillo teamed up for the second time in three games for a shootout victory for the Reign.

Jamsen records a Gordie Howe hatty

The fourth line had a big game for the Reign in the third period. The one who had the biggest game was Jamsen. Jamsen recorded the primary assist on Element’s goal and scored his third of the season to tie it at four. The goal gave Jamsen his second multi-point game of the season. The 22-year-old wasn’t done there. After getting into a board battle with Tristen Robins, the two wrestled each other to the ice before ultimately dropping the gloves and receiving five minutes for fighting.

It was a crazy third period, one that saw everything. Jamsen’s Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist, and fight) was the latest of the craziness. While Jamsen didn’t get to throw in many punches, the good thing is he stood up for himself. After the game, Element, who is known to be an enforcer, had his thoughts on Jamsen’s fight:

“It was scary at first seeing a guy like him who has no experience in fighting. He did pretty good. I don’t think he got punched in the face, that’s perfect. I like to see guys contributing, and for it to be his first Gordie Howe hat trick, you can’t ask for more.” – Element on Jamsen’s fight and contribution to the team’s win.

When asked if he’ll give Jamsen any fighting lessons, he responded with a chuckle:

“Definitely. Next practice we’re going to try some things.” – Element on giving Jamsen fighting lessons in the future.

We all know Jamsen has the skill, perhaps a few fighting lessons wouldn’t hurt to add some toughness to his game.

Second-period special teams disaster

The lone blimp was the second period. The Reign came out flat and took ‘stupid’ penalties, as Sturm alluded to in his postgame media availability. The penalties cost the Reign as the Barracuda struck on two of the three power plays and had dangerous looks as the Reign left the slot open too many times. Entering the game the Barracuda had the league’s sixth-best power play and they showed why with goals from Gushchin and Lucas Carlsson.

The Reign were the better five-on-five team but special teams, both power play and penalty kill, weren’t up to par. It was the first time in eight games (November 16th @ Colorado) the Reign allowed a power-play goal.

NOTES:

*The Reign are 9-2-0 in their last 11 games.

*Charles Hudon recorded his third goal in two games with his breakaway goal in the first period.

*Portillo made 26 saves on 30 shots faced and both shootout attempts, earning his sixth win of the year.

*Sturm after the game mentioned that he doesn’t mind Jamsen playing at center and that he has been playing center due to the Reign not having a 4C (Helenius up with the Kings and Lwrence down with the Swamp Rabbits). “He has the puck more and is a guy who needs the puck on his stick a lot,” Sturm said after the game.

*Last night was the start of four straight and six of the next ten games against teams that are top three in the division. A win means a good start for the Reign.

*Romanov made 42 saves in the defeat for the Barracuda.

*Ethan Cardwell led all skaters with three points (1G, 2 A).

*Six skaters recorded a multi-point game (three from each team).

*The Barracuda are now 4/11 (36.4%) on the power play in three games against the Reign this season.

UP NEXT: The Calgary Wranglers will be coming into town for a Wednesday night matchup against the Ontario Reign. The game starts at 7 PM PST and can be seen on FloHockey or KCAL+. You can listen to the game on the ESPN LA app if you can’t watch.

Featured image credit: Jon/HuertaOntario Reign

Tags:

Leave a Reply

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