Ontario Reign: Takeaways From 7-4 Victory Over Iowa

It was a wild back-and-forth game that saw the Ontario Reign skate away with a 7-4 victory to conclude the road trip.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

ONT: Jeff Malott (22), ASST: Joseph Cecconi (12), Martin Chromiak (15)

ONT: Glenn Gawdin (20), ASST: Martin Chromiak (16), Charles Hudon (35)

IA: PS Michael Milne (11), ASST: None

IA: Luke Toporowski (9), ASST: Caedan Bankier (13), Ryan O’Rourke (7)

Second period:

IA: Michael Milne (12), ASST: Ryan O’Rourke (8)

ONT: PP Samuel Fagemo (24), ASST: Reilly Walsh (24), Aatu Jamsen (4)

IA: Gavin Hain (3), ASST: Ryan O’Rourke (9), Adam Raska (9)

ONT: PP Jeff Malott (23), ASST: Martin Chromiak (17), Glenn Gawdin (32)

Third period:

ONT: PP Samuel Fagemo (25), ASST: Andre Lee (8), Jack Studnicka (21)

ONT: Jack Studnicka (16), ASST: Samuel Fagemo (15), Caleb Jones (17)

ONT: EN Glenn Gawdin (21), ASST: Charles Hudon (36), Joseph Cecconi (13)

Stats

Goals: 

ONT: 7

IA: 4

Shots: 

ONT: 37

IA: 27

Power plays: 

ONT: 3/4

IA: 0/1

Here are the takeaways from yesterday’s 7-4 victory:

Spreading the offensive wealth

11 and 7. No, that’s not the lineup formation Marco Sturm used in yesterday’s game. The 11 and 7 refer to the Reign’s offensive output. 11 of the Reign’s 18 skaters recorded a point and 7 of those 11 skaters had multi-point efforts. Martin Chromiak, Samuel Fagemo, and Glenn Gawdin led the way with three points each. Fagemo and Gawdin posted two goals and an assist while Chromiak had three helpers. Jeff Malott had two goals (one off his skate), Jack Studnicka had a goal and an assist in the third period, and Charles Hudon and Joseph Cecconi had two helpers. For Cecconi, the two assists were his first two points in a Reign sweater.

Now, let’s come back to Chromiak. LA’s fifth-round pick from the 2020 draft has six points in his last five games. It’s been an up-and-down season for Chromiak – mainly a lot of downs – but playing consistently these last six games is important for him if he wants to stand out and be an impact player in the playoffs for the Reign and a future on the Kings.

Shaky 40, strong final 20

While the offense was on point most of the game, the Reign were once again spotty defensively. A 2-0 in the first period with sloppy defensive play with Jacob Ingham standing on his head facing 17 shots. The second period was a bit better but the final 20 minutes was a great showing for the Reign. They didn’t allow a shot on goal from the Wild until late in the period with the game out of reach due to the offensive pressure they created. Those final 20 minutes were Ontario Reign hockey and their best of the road trip.

However, with 11 games remaining in the regular season, and the magic number being 10 points, the Reign need to get back to playing 60-minute hockey because efforts like yesterday through the first 40 minutes will see Ontario on the end of an early playoff exit.

Power play provides the power

The power play has finally come to life. The Reign scored not one, not two, but THREE power-play goals in yesterday’s contest. Since shuffling the power play lines – switches that included bumping Caleb Jones and Chromiak up to PP1, Reilly Walsh and Fagemo down to PP2, and placing Aatu Jamsen on PP2 – the Reign power play has shown life. The switches occurred in Ontario’s last home game on March 16th (five games) and they’ve gone 6/17 (35.3%). Perhaps a few switches were all that Marco Sturm needed to do.

Jacob Ingham starts

Pheonix Copley has been the clear-cut number-one goalie since Erik Portillo suffered an injury. As I said in Saturday’s recap of Sturm possibly needing to manage the workload of his veteran netminder, he did just that. Sturm tabbed Jacob Ingham as the starting netminder to conclude the road trip. Ingham made his first AHL start since November 15th and stood on his head in the opening frame.

Ingham was tested early and was sharp right away. Despite allowing four goals on 27 shots, I thought Ingham played better than the box score showed.

UP NEXT: The Reign return home for a Wednesday matchup against the Tucson Roadrunners. It’ll be the final matchup between the two clubs this season. The puck drops at 7 PM PST. You can watch the game on FloHockey or KCAL+ (channel 9.6). You can also listen to the game on the ESPN LA app or ontarioreign.com/radio.

Featured image credit: Tim Garland/Iowa Wild

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