Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 4-3 Loss to Coachella Valley

The Ontario Reign fought hard to claw their way out of a three-goal deficit in the third period but fell short to Coachella Valley.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

CV: Jani Nyman (10), ASST: Jagger Firkus (13)

Second period:

CV: PP Lleyton Roed (8), ASST: Nikolas Brouillard (8), Brandon Brio (11)

ONT:  Jack Studnicka (7), ASST: Caleb Jones (5), Tyler Madden (13)

CV: Ryan Winterton (10), ASST: None

Third period:

CV: Max McCormick (7), ASST: Brandon Biro (12), John Hayden (12)

ONT: PP Samuel Fagemo (18), ASST: Reilly Walsh (12), Charles Hudon (12)

ONT: Jeff Malott (7), ASST: Glenn Gawdin (19), Charles Hudon (13)

Stats

Goals:

CV: 4

ONT: 3

Shots:

CV: 23

ONT: 35

Power plays:

CV: 1/1

ONT: 1/4

Here are the three takeaways from yesterday’s 4-3 defeat:

Fuel the fire

The final shots will say 35-23 in favor of Ontario, but the Firebirds were the ones who started this game firing away. On the second night of a back-to-back, the Reign looked flat. The Firebirds on the first night of a back-to-back were flying. They were quick to loose pucks, pounced on mistakes, and struck first on Jani Nyman’s 10th goal of the year, his fourth against the Reign.

Yes, the Reign fought hard to battle back and almost got a point out of it, but the hill was too steep to climb. Mistakes in any game will cost you and the Reign found that out on the Firebirds’ third and fourth goals by Ryan Winterton and Max McCormick with turnovers along the wall. Marco Sturm after the game mentioned that the team’s passing has been off lately, particularly the breakouts, and will need to improve. Any turnover on breakouts sent the Firebirds back on the attack.

Studnicka scores again, Chromiak’s scoring woes continue

Jack Studnicka has found the twine for the third straight game, and second straight on a redirection goal. Studnicka hadn’t scored a goal in 12 games before the week started. Three games this week later and he found the net in each one. The goal from Studnicka was his seventh of the season, tying his total from last year. He’s been solid overall for most of the year and it’s good to see him get rewarded.

Now on to Martin Chromiak.

Chromiak has been the opposite of Studnicka. Once a potential gem in the Kings’ system is now a forgotten prospect. The former fifth-round pick by the LA Kings in 2020 had five shots on goal but couldn’t find the back of the net again. That’s nine straight games without a goal and one in the last 19 games. Going from juniors to the AHL is hard, but this is Chromiak’s third year as a pro and the consistency hasn’t been there outside of his hot stretch in January of 2023.

Sturm said he has to get better at putting the puck in the back of the net.

Power play struggles

The power play has seen personnel turnover and was ranked 20th (16.2%) entering yesterday’s contest. Glenn Gawdin, Jeff Malott, and Reilly Walsh are the newcomers on the first unit, while Samuel Fagemo and Charles Hudon are returners from last season. Studnicka is the lone newcomer in the second unit. The first unit gets most of the ice time and has struggled throughout the year, despite going 1-for-4 last night.

What are some of the reasons for the struggles?

“We got some new faces. I think overall we got spoiled in the past having [TJ] Tynan. You can say whatever you want, but he’s the guy who carried the puck in all the time, and with his speed and skill, it made it really easy for the rest of us,” Sturm said.

Zone entries have been one of the noticeable issues and with Tynan no longer around, the Reign don’t have the speed and shiftiness of a player on the first unit like they did with him. Gawdin and Hudon are good players but aren’t elite at zone entries like Tynan was. If you can’t enter the zone cleanly you’re chasing the rest of the power play.

While zone entries are one area the Reign will need to work on, Ontario will need to find a way to take advantage or generate momentum on their power plays when given the opportunity. It sounds like Sturm will trust his first unit to find their way out of it. Ontario has the talent to put the puck in the net on the man advantage; they’ll need to rely on the unit as a whole.

NOTES:

*McCormick recorded his 19th point in 19 regular-season games in his career against the Reign with his third-period goal. His goal ended up as the game-winner.

*Winterton scored his fourth goal against the Reign this season.

*Brandon Biro recorded two assists for the Firebirds.

*Charles Hudon returned from the Spengler Cup and registered two assists.

*Caleb Jones recorded his fifth assist in five games.

*Malott scored in back-to-back games and third in the last four.

*Francesco Pinelli’s four-game goal streak was snapped. He had no shots on goal and had a -1 rating.

*Joe Hicketts played in his 500th professional game.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign will travel to Henderson for the final time this season to take on the Silver Knights. It’ll be the sixth meeting between the two teams. The game is on Wednesday, January 8th at 7 PM PST, and can be seen on FloHockey. You can also listen to the game on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Jon Huerta/Ontario Reign 

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