Ontario Reign: Notes From 4-2 Loss to San Jose

The Ontario Reign ended their five-game road trip with a 4-2 loss to the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday night.

Goal Breakdown

First period:

SJ: Jack Thompson (1), ASST: Ethan Cardwell (2), Lucas Carlsson (1)

SJ: SH Zack Ostapchuk (2), ASST: Jimmy Huntington (4)

Second period:

ONT: Martin Chromiak (3), ASST: Glenn Gawdin (5), Joe Hicketts (4)

Third period:

SJ: PP Quentin Musty (2), ASST: Colin White (5), Cam Lund (6)

ONT: PP Taylor Ward (5), ASST: Francesco Pinelli (3), Cole Guttman (2)

SJ: Pavol Regenda (1), ASST: Filip Bystedt (3)

Stats

Goals:

ONT: 2

SJ: 4

Shots:

ONT: 29

SJ: 30

Power plays:

ONT: 1/3

SJ: 1/2

Notes from yesterday’s 4-2 loss:

Barracuda bite back

The Barracuda bounced back in a big way with a strong first period. The shots on goal weren’t lopsided (7-5), but the hosts found themselves up 2-0. It was the complete opposite from the start Ontario had less than 24 hours before yesterday’s game. The Reign found themselves within a tally twice as the game progressed, but couldn’t get the tying goal.

Taylor Ward is on fire

Nobody has a hotter stick on the Reign than Taylor Ward at the moment. Ward has been hotter than a pistol, scoring five goals in his last five games. Ward’s power-play tally with the goalie pulled late in the third period brought the Reign within one, but that would be as close as they got. Ward had eight points (5 G, 3 A) on the five-game road trip.

Special teams letdown

The Reign scored a power-play goal, but surrendered another goal on the penalty kill and even gave up a short-handed goal. By my math, that comes out to a -1 differential on the night. The penalty kill has given up at least one goal against in four of the last five games. The Reign’s penalty kill ranks 26th (73.3%) while the power play ranks 20th (18.4%) in the AHL. They need to be better.

End of the road

The road trip for the Reign concluded last night, and the team went 3-2-0-0, earning six out of a possible 10 points. I’m sure Andrew Lord and his coaching staff will take it, but there are some areas for improvement. In their 6-2 loss to Henderson and their loss last night, the Reign had a short moment in each game where bad play for 5-8 minutes decided a game.

NOTES:

*Glenn Gawdin’s assist on Martin Chromiak’s goal gave him six points (1 G, 5 A) in his last six games.

*I thought there would be some bad blood that would spill over from yesterday’s game, and it did. Jacob Doty set the tone early with his second fighting major of the season.

*Pheonix Copley stopped 26 of 30 shots in the loss.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign return home to face, yes, you guessed it, the San Jose Barracuda on Tuesday night. It will be the rubber match of this mini three-game series. The puck drops shortly after 7 PM PST, and you can watch the game on FloHockey and KCAL+ (channel 9.6). If you can’t watch the game, you can listen to it on the Ontario Reign radio network or the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Andreaa Cardani/San Jose Barracuda

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