Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 1-0 Loss to Henderson

The Ontario Reign couldn’t find the equalizer, getting shut out for the third time this season in their 1-0 defeat to the Henderson Silver Knights.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

None

Second period:

None

Third period:

HSK: PP Jonas Rondbjerg (6), ASST: Mitch McLain (10), Kai Uchacz (7)

Stats

Goals: 

HSK: 1

ONT: 0

Shots: 

HSK: 22

ONT: 25

Power plays: 

HSK: 1/5

ONT: 0/3

Here are the three takeaways from Saturday night’s defeat:

Offense gets blanked

The Reign had 25 shots on goal in the game and hit two posts in the third period, but couldn’t get the puck past Carl Lindbom. Entering the day, Henderson allowed nearly four goals a game (3.86), good enough for second-worst in the AHL. Instead, Henderson was great defensively. They forced the Reign to the outside, sacrificing the body to block shots, and Lindbom being a brick wall in net.

The game was tightly contested at five-on-five, with neither team scoring a goal in that department, but when Henderson had the lead they held onto it and were committed to playing a tight defensive structure. When the final horn sounded, they earned their second victory against Ontario this season, snapping a five-game losing streak against them.

Special teams are a deciding factor

As I mentioned earlier, this game was tightly contested. There wasn’t much room in either neutral zone and both goalies held their own. To give you an idea of how close the game was both teams had 16 shots on goal through two periods of play. Games like this often come down to one play being the difference, and that is what happened.

Jack Studnicka got whistled for a tripping penalty at the 4:47 mark of the third period which sent Henderson to their fourth power play opportunity. It took only 13 seconds for them to cash in as Jonas Rondbjerg was wide open sneaking down on the backside to break the scoreless tie.

Head coach Marco Sturm has talked about how special teams can be the difference in a game in the past and that ended up being the case in yesterday’s game. A puck battle was lost along the wall and leaving the backside unattended was the slight difference in the contest.

Henderson scored on one of their power-play opportunities and the Reign didn’t.

The Reign’s power play has been anemic all season and has halted a chance for momentum in games, like last night. It needs to be better, plain and simple. As for the penalties, that has been a recurring theme in their last three games.

Just power play opportunities alone, the Reign have been short-handed 16 times during this three-game losing streak compared to seven times in five games before this stretch. That’s an average of five power-play opportunities a game for the opposing team. The Reign need to stop paying a frequent visit to the penalty box because it throws off the rhythm of line combinations at five-on-five and can cost a team games.

Pheonix Copley played well

Pheonix Copley didn’t get the win on his birthday but had a bounce-back game. Copley stopped 21 of 22 shots after surrendering eight goals combined in his last two starts, including getting relieved by Erik Portillo to start the second period in the Reign’s 5-0 loss to the Iowa Wild. While the result wasn’t what Ontario wanted, seeing Copley have a good game is something to walk away with. He gave the Reign a chance to win; that is all you can ask from your goalie.

His best save came late in the first period when he slid across to deny Cal Burke with his blocker. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the win on his birthday but, hopefully, he was able to celebrate with some cake after the game.

NOTES:

*Martin Chromiak was a healthy scratch for the first time this season.

*After being a healthy scratch for Wednesday’s game, Francesco Pinelli was inserted back into the lineup as the 2C. He moved his feet early in the first period and led the rush multiple times. He finished with three shots on goal, a team-high with Samuel Fagemo and Caleb Jones.

*Lindbom recorded his second shutout of the season and was named the game’s first star.

*The Reign were shut out for the second time in five games.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign will look to end their three-game losing streak on Sunday as the Calgary Wranglers come to town. The game starts at 3 PM PST and can be seen on FloHockey. If you can’t watch the game, you can listen to it on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Mike Zitek/Ontario

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