Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 4-3 OT Victory Over Calgary

The Ontario Reign faced multiple two-goal deficits but completed the comeback with a 4-3 overtime victory.

Goal Breakdown

First period: 

CGY: Martin Frk (18), ASST: Dryden Hunt (29)

Second period:

CGY: SH David Silye (6), ASST: Dryden Hunt (30), Artem Grushnikov (4)

ONT: Shawn Element (8), ASST: Taylor Ward (10), Angus Booth (11)

CGY: Martin Frk (19), ASST: Rory Kerins (15), Dryden Hunt (31)

ONT: PP Jack Studnicka (13), ASST: Andre Lee (5), Tyler Madden (17)

Third period:

ONT: Charles Hudon (17), ASST: Jeff Malott (22), Joe Hicketts (20)

Overtime: 

ONT: Francesco Pinelli (12), ASST: Martin Chromiak (13)

Stats

Goals:

ONT: 4

CGY: 3

Shots: 

ONT: 19

CGY: 20

Power plays: 

ONT: 1/3

CGY: 0/1

Here are the three takeaways from yesterday’s overtime victory:

Comeback is complete

The Reign trailed by two goals on multiple occasions in the second period but went into the locker room down by one. Entering the day, the Reign were 4-11-1-0 when trailing after 40 minutes. The Wranglers, on the other hand, were 22-0-0-0 when leading after 40 minutes. If the Reign wanted to grab two points, they would have to do something no team has done when trailing after two periods against the Wranglers this season: win the game.

It wasn’t a pretty start to the third period. The Wranglers were constantly in the Reign end and didn’t let them set up anything offensively due to their sustained offensive zone time or tight gaps in the neutral zone. Eventually, after only recording two shots on goal through the first 14 minutes of the final frame, the shrewd veterans of Jeff Malott and Charles Hudon teamed up to tie the game on a goal in transition as Malott circled behind the net to set up Hudon for his 17th goal of the season.

After surviving a late push by the home team, the game would require overtime, but this time, the young bucks of Martin Chromiak and Francesco Pinelli would team up for the overtime winner. After losing control of the puck in the neutral zone, Chromiak chased down Wranglers defenseman Ilya Solovyov, knocked him off the puck, and found Pinelli in the slot for the winning goal to steal the extra point for the Reign and hand Calgary their first loss when leading after two periods.

Watching it live, it looked like Pinelli was trying to go five-hole on Devin Cooley. When looking at the replay, that may not be the case, as it looked like Pinelli may have tried to go glove side on Cooley but might not have gotten a lot on his shot attempt.

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It’s better to be lucky than good, I guess. Anyway, a good character win by the Reign in a close contest.

Physicality was a factor

This was a tight and physical game. There wasn’t any room out there; it felt like a playoff game. The second period, however, was an outlier as the two teams combined for four goals. Joe Hicketts’ clean shoulder check on Sam Morton in the neutral zone got it started. Unfortunately, Morton would get hurt on the hit and didn’t return. Jonathan Aspirot’s boarding penalty on Tyler Madden led to Cole Krygier defending his teammate and racking up 17 penalty minutes (instigator, fighting, and a 10-minute misconduct).

There were multiple pushing and shoving incidents after whistles, including after Martin Frk’s second goal when Jack Millar took offense to the former’s celebration in which he pointed in the direction of Erik Portillo. It’s been that way all season series, especially in the Wranglers’ 5-4 overtime victory at Toyota Arena last month that saw Francesco Pinelli and Jacob Doty drop the gloves for the Reign in the opening period. It wouldn’t surprise me if the chippy play carries over into Monday’s meeting.

Rocky start but strong finish for Portillo

Let’s call a spade a spade: after a strong eight-game stretch (seven starts and one relief appearance), Portillo has struggled in his last six starts entering yesterday. This stretch has seen Portillo surrender four or more goals in five of those six games and a .833 save percentage. That’s a complete 180 compared to Pheonix Copley’s .965 save percentage in his last five starts. While not solely his fault, there have been goals Portillo has allowed to the glove side or having to much movement in the crease, the latter and rebound control have been a work in progress since the Kings acquired him.

Things looked like they were heading in the wrong direction as Calgary scored three goals on their first nine shots. Calgary’s third goal was not all on Portillo. Nobody picked up Frk in transition, and Element, the closest player near him, was caught puck-watching and didn’t pick him up in time on the back check. However, an over-commitment to one side by Portillo, in anticipation of a shot attempt, left the net open for Frk’s second goal of the afternoon.

After that goal, nothing got past Portillo in the last 36:35 of game time. He stopped all 11 of Calgary’s shots on goal in that span. His biggest save came on Dryden Hunt’s breakaway attempt with 11:37 to play in the game. That save kept the Reign within one, and what I liked is that Portillo stood with Hunt the whole way and didn’t make the first move.

The box score will say 17 saves on 20 shots faced (.850 sv%), but Portillo finished the game strong after a rocky start. Building off on the last 36:35 can be big for him if he can turn it around as he continues to rotate starts, develop, and work on being more poised in the crease.

We’ve seen him have good stretches of play before. So, it’s not a matter of if he can turn things around, but when.

NOTES:

*The Wranglers’ top line of Rory Kerins, Martin Frk, and Dryden Hunt combined for six points. Frk and Hunt combined for five of those points. Frk, the former Reign, registered two goals while Hunt picked up three assists.

*11 different skaters for the Reign recorded a point.

*Element scored his first goal since December 21st. It was his eighth tally of the season.

*The Wranglers have scored first in every meeting this season.

*The Reign have held the Wranglers to 20 shots on goal or less in all four meetings.

UP NEXT: These two teams are back at it again on Monday afternoon. The game starts at 1:30 PM PST and can be seen on FloSports. You can also listen to the game on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Angela Burger/Calgary Wranglers

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