The Ontario Reign Secured Their Second Comeback Victory in Three Games With Their 3-2 Overtime Win Over Coachella Valley

The Ontario Reign trailed by two again and found a way to complete the comeback with an overtime victory over the Coachella Valley Firebirds for the second time in three games.

Scoring

First period: 

CV: Eduard Sale (3), ASST: Oscar Fisker-Molgaard (2), Lukas Dragicevic (1)

Second period: 

CV: Lleyton Roed (1), ASST: Tyson Jugnauth (8), John Hayden (3)

ONT: Martin Chromiak (2), ASST: Grant Slukynsky (1), Lane Pederson (4)

ONT: Lane Pederson (3), ASST: Scott Perunovich (3), Kirill Kirsanov (3)

Third period: 

None

Overtime: 

ONT: Cole Guttman (1), ASST: Kenny Connors (2), Joe Hicketts (1)

Stats

Goals: 

ONT: 3

CV: 2

Shots: 

ONT: 39

CV: 17

Power plays: 

ONT: 0/4

CV: 0/5

The Reign found themselves in familiar territory for the second time in just over a week: down two goals on the road to the Firebirds. As they did on opening night, the Reign battled back, forced overtime, and won. With the quick recap out of the way, here are my takeaways from yesterday afternoon’s comeback victory:

Déjà vu

It happened again. The Reign trailed 2-0 early in the second period, and it looked like another long game against their I-10 rivals.

Not so fast.

The Reign didn’t let the game slip away and turned the tide in the middle frame with goals by Martin Chromiak and Lane Pederson 4:42 apart.

The Reign controlled most of the game after trailing 2-0, but couldn’t take the lead in regulation, and Carter George made some big saves. After controlling most of the possession in overtime, the Reign finally got their best look when Kenny Connors found Cole Guttman skating down the high slot uncovered for the game-winning goal.

Alas, for the second time in three games — both in Acrisure Arena — the Reign overcame a two-goal deficit for an overtime winner. I don’t want to make assumptions, but I think head coach Andrew Lord won’t like to see this become a recurring theme, and he’ll want to see his club protect a lead for once.

Carter George gets the win

After being the backup goalie in the first two games, Carter George got the start. George allowed a goal on his first shot in the opening period, but played well the rest of the way. If the 20-year-old netminder has one strong trait, it’s his ability to have a short memory and not let anything affect him; he showed that yesterday afternoon.

The box score will say 15 saves on 17 shots, but I counted three quality saves. His first save was a right-pad save on the league’s leading goal-scorer, Jani Nyman, while shorthanded with 14:17 left in the second period. He made another big shorthanded save in the third period, with a good push across from his skate to get over and deny Julius Miettinen’s bid after the latter pinched in for the scoring chance.

His best came in the final three minutes of regulation, when he tracked a rebound and recovered with his glove stacked on his left pad to deny Logan Morrison, keeping the score tied.

A good game from George.

Much better effort

The Reign showed much better effort yesterday, and perhaps the week off helped. In his postgame interview with Reign insider Cam McGuire, Andrew Lord said the long layoff helped them build a training-camp style at the start of the week, allowing them to get back to the basics and focus on structure.

The idea worked, and you could tell. The Reign were much sharper with their puck management, but my biggest impression was their ability to limit Coachella Valley’s transition offense and stymie them in the neutral zone. That is a big part of Coachella Valley’s game, and if you can neutralize it, you take them out of their game.

Special teams looked okay

The power play went 0-for-4 but looked a bit better. Although they didn’t score, the power play did have some good looks and player movement, which was lacking in the previous game. The biggest surprise was the penalty kill. The penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5 and looked much better. Coachella Valley’s power play has been white-hot out of the gate, and the Reign’s perfect performance should signal that unit is turning a corner.

NOTES:

*Carter George has won all three of his AHL starts, dating back to April of 2025.

*Martin Chromiak led all skaters with 9(!) shots on goal.

*Grant Slukynsky recorded his first professional point with a primary assist on Chromiak’s goal.

*Lane Pederson recorded a goal and an assist for his second multi-point game this season.

*Defenseman Jared Woolley was a healthy scratch in today’s game. The Reign have plenty of defensemen to rotate in and out, so Woolley got a day off.

UP NEXT: The Reign return to action Wednesday, October 14th, to face their SoCal rivals, the San Diego Gulls, on the road. The game starts at 7 PM PST and can be seen on FloSports. If you can’t watch, you can listen on the Ontario Reign Radio Network.

Featured image credit: Megan Sanders/Ontario Reign

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