Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 3-0 Victory Over Coachella Valley

The Ontario Reign swept the week with a team-effort victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Saturday evening.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

ONT: Taylor Ward (6), ASST: Charles Hudon (18)

Second period:

ONT: Jack Studnicka (10); ASST: Jack Millar (7), Joe Hicketts (17)

Third period:

ONT: EN Jeff Malott (10), ASST: Charles Hudon (19)

Stats

Goals:

CV: 0

ONT: 3

Shots: 

CV: 27

ONT: 21

Power plays: 

CV: 0/0

ONT: 0/3

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

60-minute effort

This was a team game for the Ontario Reign. After trailing after 40 minutes and coming back to win in a shootout the night before, the Reign played one of their better 60-minute games of the season from start to finish. Although the Reign were hemmed in their zone early on, they didn’t have many breakdowns like the previous week.

Instead, they were structured, broke up passes with their sticks, had good gap control, backchecked, and didn’t allow Coachella Valley many quality scoring chances despite the latter not playing their best game.

It also helped that Pheonix Copley was a brick wall in net. Copley stopped all 27 shots faced and made key saves early to keep the game scoreless, giving the Reign a chance. In addition to playing a structured game, the Reign didn’t commit a single penalty—a very clean game.

Milestone for Hudon

Charles Hudon is known more for his scoring than his playmaking; however, it was the latter that grabbed the spotlight for him. Hudon got the primary assist on Taylor Ward’s goal in the opening frame to give him his first assist of the evening, even though there was good fortune on his side.

Hudon would record another primary assist later in the game on Jeff Malott’s empty-net goal in the third period to give Ontario a 3-0 lead.

Why are those two assists important? They’re important because Hudon recorded career AHL assists number 199 and 200 on the evening.

Hudon has been a key contributor to the Reign since joining the team last summer (87 points in 91 games), and to reach that milestone in front of the home crowd has to be a good feeling.

The third line scores twice

The first line has been the workhorse for the Reign all season, but lately, it’s been the third line. The trio of Andre Lee, Jack Studnicka, and Taylor Ward combined for two goals (one on a mixed line). Ward got the scoring started with 5:33 left in the first period, while Studnicka scored on his only shot of the game that went off the post and in during the middle frame.

Depth scoring and balance have been the key to the Reign’s success this year as Sturm likes to roll all four lines and six defensemen. They got that this week and went 3-0-0-0 because of it.

NOTES:

*Pheonix Copley earned his second shutout of the season with his 27-save effort.

*Taylor Ward recorded his sixth goal of the season. It was the game-winning goal.

*Jack Studnicka’s goal gave him four points in his last four games.

*Jack Millar is quietly having a good season for the Reign. He had a +3 rating in this game and recorded an assist for the third straight game.

*The Reign are now 13-1-0-1 when scoring first and 14-0-0-0 when leading after two periods of play.

*This was the eighth and final meeting of the regular season between the two teams. The teams split the season series with four wins apiece. Ontario won four of the last five meetings after Coachella Valley won the first three.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign are back in action on Wednesday, January 29th, at Toyota Arena against the Colorado Eagles. Former Reign captain TJ Tynan, who spent the last three years with Ontario, will make his return as a visitor for the first time since the 2019-20 season. The game starts at 7 PM PST and can be seen on FloHockey and KCAL+ (channel 9.6). You can also listen to the game on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Mike Zitek/Ontario Reign 

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