Ontario Reign: Three Takeaways From 3-0 Win Over Iowa

The Ontario Reign finished the week off strong with a 3-0 shutout win over the Iowa Wild in Erik Portillo’s return.

Goal Breakdown

First period: 

ONT: Martin Chromiak (12), ASST: None

Second period:

ONT: Martin Chromiak (13), ASST: Glenn Gawdin (20), Jakub Dvořák (2)

ONT: PP Andre Lee (15), ASST: Samuel Bolduc (10), Joe Hicketts (10)

Third period: 

None

Stats

Goals: 

IA: 0

ONT: 3

Shots: 

IA: 19

ONT: 29

Power plays: 

IA: 0/5

ONT: 1/4

Here are the three takeaways from Sunday afternoon’s shutout victory over Iowa:

Welcome back, Ports!

Erik Portillo got the start after missing 16 games with an injury and serving as the backup netminder in Saturday’s game. Making his first start since November 12th in Calgary, Portillo stopped all 19 shots for his first shutout of the season and first since January 5th, 2024.

There weren’t a ton of shots from the Wild, but the Swedish goalie made a few quality saves throughout the game to preserve his shutout. If there were any concerns about Portillo having any jitters, those got put to rest early, as Portillo looked strong and sound with his positioning in the net.

After the game, Portillo spoke with the media and talked about how great it was to be back out on the ice after his injury:

“It was really fun. It’s great to be out there with the boys again.” – Portillo said on getting back into a game rhythm.

“It was a little different. We handled it internally and took care of it.” – Portillo said of his injury.

Chromiak double-dips

Entering the game, Martin Chromiak hadn’t scored in his last five games. Any chances of him making six straight games were dashed with his first-period goal at four-on-four play to open the scoring on his signature backhand attempt on a breakaway.

The backhand move is something we see Chromiak use on breakaway, shootout, or penalty shot attempts. For Chromiak, it’s his go-to move, but he knows it depends on the situation and what the goalie does. “You have to see what position you are in and what the goalie does. I think this move has worked for me in the past, so I just stuck with it,” the forward said after the game.

Fast forward to the second period, and Chromiak deposited his second tally of the contest, which just made it through Riley Mercer and over the line for his third multi-goal game of the year. Andrew Lord had him out there late in the game with the Wild’s net empty for the extra attacker, but he wasn’t able to get a clean look at the empty goal.

When using his speed and puck protection, Chromiak can be dangerous and make an impact offensively, and that is what happened on both of his goals.

Penalty kill success

The penalty kill was a work in progress for the Reign at the start of the year, but now it’s been dominant. Looking at the numbers, the Reign have killed off 18 straight power plays dating back to their 6-3 loss to the San Jose Barracuda on December 21st.

Let’s look even further.

Dating back to November 7th against San Diego, the Reign have had a penalty kill success rate of 87.5% (48/56). In that time frame, they have faced three temas who rank inside the top 10 on the power play (Bakersfield, San Jose, and Colorado). And the prospects, particularly rookies in Kenny Connors, Jared Wright, and Kirill Kirsanov, have played a pivotal role on the penalty kill for Lord’s squad. All three have displayed good instincts and stick details to break up passes, which is a good reason why the Reign penalty kill has leapfrogged from around 20th to 10th (82.8%) in the AHL.

NOTES:

*Glenn Gawdin extended his point streak to 11 games with his assist on Martin Chromiak’s second goal of the game.

*Andre Lee scored a power-play goal in back-to-back games, upping his power-play goal total to seven on the year. He leads the Reign in goals with 15.

*Aatu Jamsen returned to the lineup after missing the last three games.

*The Reign scored a power-play goal in three straight games for the second time this season.

*The Reign are now 11-1-0-0 when scoring first and 13-0-1-0 when leading after 40 minutes.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign and Iowa Wild return to the ice for the rematch on Wednesday, January 7th, at Toyota Arena. The puck drops at 7 PM PST and can be seen on FloSports and KCAL+ (channel 9.6). If you are unable to watch the game, you can listen to it on the Ontario Reign radio network and on the ESPN LA app.

Featured image credit: Megan Sanders/Ontario Reign

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *