Ontario Reign: Four Takeaways From 4-2 Win Over Coachella Valley

The Ontario Reign swept the weekend series against the Coachella Valley Firebirds with a comeback victory on Saturday night.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

CV: Lleyton Roed (5), ASST: Ryan Winterton (9), Ty Nelson (8)

CV: Brandon Biro (2), ASST: Jagger Firkus (9), Ryan Jones (2)

Second period:

ONT: Samuel Fagemo (15), ASST: Charles Hudon (10)

ONT: Jeff Malott (4), ASST: Charles Hudon (11), Glenn Gawdin (17)

ONT: Jacob Doty (3), ASST: Tyler Madden (10), Joe Hicketts (14)

Third period:

ONT: Shawn Element (7), ASST: Tyler Madden (11), Jacob Doty (5)

Stats

Goals:

CV: 2

ONT: 4

Shots:

CV: 30

ONT: 31

Power plays:

CV: 0/5

ONT: 0/3

Here are the four takeaways from last night’s victory:

Let those bears fly!

The annual Teddy Bear Toss game is fun. It’s one fans always look forward to. It’s the biggest crowd of the year and sitting in the press box you can feel the anticipation of the crowd waiting for that first goal by the home team to litter the ice with stuffed animals. The crowd would groan whenever the Reign got a quality look but didn’t score in the first period.

The Reign trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes. Who would get the goal to send the bears flying? The answer would be Samuel Fagemo. The Reign finally broke through with Fagemo’s backhand goal at the 6:09 mark of the second period. Once Ales Stezka missed the pokecheck, Fagemo had the whole net to shoot at.

Fagemo’s team-leading 15th goal of the year made it reign teddy bears inside Toyota Arena.

Fagemo not only scored the teddy bear toss goal, but he also played wide receiver, catching a bear during his celebration.

The fourth line does it again

Ontario has gotten a boost from that fourth line no matter who is on it. That line found the scoresheet for the fourth straight game and was led by Jacob Doty, who brought the physicality and intensity from the opening puck drop. Doty and Ian McKinnon of the Firebirds dropped the gloves 2:43 into the contest with a heavyweight tilt that fired the crowd up immediately.

Doty would find himself in controversy at the end of the first with a high hit on Ville Ottavainen. Doty looked like he would be ejected but the referees ultimately gave him a two-minute penalty for elbowing. That would play a factor later in the game.

The fourth line provided energy and gave the Reign a spark all night. Tyler Madden recorded two assists and has points in three of his last four games (five assists). Doty would score the game-winning goal late in the second period and Shawn Element scored his seventh goal of the year, the insurance goal, with under nine minutes to play. Doty was credited with the secondary assist on Element’s goal, which gave him a Gordie Howe hat trick and the game’s first star.

When a team gets contributions from their fourth line like the Reign have lately it makes them hard to beat.

Reign are on fire

The Reign Train is rolling into the holiday break. Ontario goes into the holiday break with an overall six-game win streak, with three being third-period comebacks, and nine wins in their last ten games. These last four games saw the Reign play the top three teams (San Jose, Calgary, and Coachella Valley twice) in the division and skate away with the win in all of them.

A perfect sendoff into the break.

The Reign trailed in all six games at some point, including giving up the first goal in their last three contests. Contributions throughout the lineup and excellent goaltending have the Reign right where they are: tied for third place and two points behind San Jose for the second seed.

Young players catching the attention of others

Veterans and youth. It’s a good mix for an AHL team. The goal of the AHL is to be the primary development league for NHL teams’ top prospects. Having veterans on the team and being mentors to those prospects is a good thing. Jeff Malott, one of those veterans on the Reign, had good praise for some of the prospects when asked about who has impressed during his postgame media availability.

Malott named Francesco Pinelli and Martin Chromiak for the chemistry the plays they make together on the same line while having strong words for Angus Booth.

“On the backend, Angus Booth has been doing an awesome job. A lot of growth out of him.” – Malott on prospects who have impressed so far.

If you follow me on Twitter (I will never call it ‘X’) I’ve been pumping Booth’s tires back to the Rookie Tournament in September. The 20-year-old’s solid play has not only caught the attention of the coaching staff but his teammates, too. Remember, he won Player of the Month in October, an award voted internally by the team, per Marco Sturm after the Reign’s 8-4 win over Abbotsford last month.

NOTES:

*Element’s seventh goal of the season brings him two goals away from tying his previous high of nine (2022-23 & 2023-24 seasons).

*Doty’s multi-point night gives him eight points on the season, two away from his career-high set last season (ten points). The longest-tenured player for the Reign also recorded the team’s second Gordie Howe hat trick within a week (Aatu Jamsen was the other player; 12/15 vs San Jose).

*Hudon extended his point streak to five games with his two assists. He has nine points (5 G, 4 A) in that span.

*Fagemo recorded his fourth goal in four games.

*Malott extended his point streak to three games with a goal in the second period.

*Erik Portillo made 28 saves for his eighth win of the season. He has a 2.37 GAA and .910 sv% in ten games.

*The Reign penalty kill went 5/5 and have killed off 20/21 (95.2%) Firebird power plays in the season series (five games).

UP NEXT: It’s the holiday break! The Ontario Reign won’t play again until Friday, December 27th when they hit the road to face the San Diego Gulls. That game starts at 7 PM PST. You can watch it on FloHockey or listen to it on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Mike Zitek/Ontario Reign

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