Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 5-2 Victory Over Abbotsford

The Ontario Reign completed the weekend sweep with a dominating 5-2 victory over the Abbotsford Canucks on Sunday.

Goal Breakdown

First period: 

ABB: Vilmer Alriksson (1), ASST: Jimmy Schuldt (1), Tom Wallinder (1)

ONT: Cole Guttman (1), ASST: Akil Thomas (2), Kirill Kirsanov (1)

ONT: Taylor Ward (3), ASST: Glenn Gawdin (3)

Second period: 

ONT: PP Samuel Bolduc (3), ASST: Taylor Ward (2), Andre Lee (2)

ONT: Francesco Pinelli (2), ASST: Kirill Kirsanov (2), Cole Guttman (1)

Third period: 

ABB: Sawyer Mynio (1), ASST: Chase Wouters (2), Dino Kambeitz (1)

ONT: EN Jared Wright (1), ASST: Akil Thomas (3)

Stats

Goals: 

ONT: 5

ABB: 2

Shots: 

ONT: 31

ABB: 15

Power plays: 

ONT: 1/2

ABB: 0/1

Here are the three takeaways from Sunday’s 5-2 victory:

How sweep it is!

The Ontario spoiled the fun in Abbotsford with a pair of 5-2 victories to complete the weekend sweep to start their five-game rodeo. The Reign played their best 60-minute effort of the season to date, with Sunday being their best.

The Reign outskated and outworked the Canucks in the opening 40 minutes. Their forecheck was suffocating Abbotsford. They won every puck battle, and their breakouts were clean. They were flying, and when playing Abbotsford, you have to be able to skate and keep pace with them.

Ontario did just that and outshot Abbotsford 24-7 through 40 minutes. Although they slightly let up in the third period, it was still a dominant and thorough 60-minute game—a great way to start the road trip against the defending Calder Cup champions.

Spreading the wealth

Ontario is stacked at the forward position. Their depth allows them to play any game they want; it’s a good mix of size and skill within that group, while integrating prospects within the organization into the lineup. The forward depth was on display in yesterday’s victory.

Five different goal scorers. Nine players with at least one point. Four players with a multi-point game. When you have a team performance like that from your lineup, you’re going to win at least nine times out of ten.

Cole Guttman, Kirill Kirsanov, Akil Thomas, and Taylor Ward each led the way offensively with multi-point games.

Koehn Ziemmer makes his season debut

Koehn Ziemmer was a healthy scratch through the first five games, but finally drew into the lineup yesterday. LA’s third-round pick from the 2023 draft played on the fourth line with Jack Hughes and Aatu Jamsen.

The second-best forward prospect in the Kings’ organization had a strong game, recording four shots on goal and two scoring chances, with one going off the post in the middle frame. Although that line was on the ice for a goal against, I thought Ziemmer had a good game. He’s got a good shot and can get himself in a good position on his release.

NOTES:

*Ontario’s 31 shots on goal were a season-high.

*Cole Guttman scored his first goal with the Reign. Guttman was a former Jr. King and is from Northridge.

*Glenn Gawdin extended his point streak to three games (1 G, 3 A) with his assist on Ward’s goal.

*Jared Wright’s empty-net goal was his first professional goal.

*Taylor Ward’s assist on Samuel Bolduc’s power-play goal was the 100th career AHL point.

*Kirill Kirsanov’s two assists were his first professional points in North America.

*Koehn Ziemmer and Taylor Ward had a game high of four shots on goal.

*Erik Portillo stopped 13 of 15 shots. The Reign as a team have allowed two goals or fewer in their last five games.

*Vilmer Alriksson and Sawyer Mynio both recorded their first professional goal on the Abbotsford side.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign continue their road trip with a stop at Henderson on Wednesday. The game starts at 7 PM PST, and you can watch it on FloHockey. If you are unable to watch the game, you can listen to it on the Ontario Reign radio network.

Featured image credit: Darren Scott Francis/Abbotsford Canucks

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