The Ontario Reign Ride a Three-goal Second Period to a Victory Over the San Diego Gulls

In a chippy contest, the Ontario Reign took the first of eight meetings against their SoCal rivals, the San Diego Gulls, with a 3-2 road victory.

Scoring

First period:

SD: Matt Basgall (1), ASST: Lucas Pettersson (1), Anton Wahlberg (5)

Second period:

ONT: PP Taylor Ward (3), ASST: Lane Pederson (5), Scott Perunovich (4)

ONT: Jack Hughes (1), ASST: Joe Hicketts (2), Jack Millar (1)

ONT: Koehn Ziemmer (2), ASST: Grant Slukynsky (1)

Third period: 

SD: PP Yegor Sidorov (1), ASST: Lucas Pettersson (2), Matthew Phillips (2)

Stats

Goals:

ONT: 3

SD: 2

Shots: 

ONT: 22

SD: 27

Power plays:

ONT: 1/5

SD: 1/7

For the third straight game, the Reign conceded the first goal. For the second straight game, they found a way to win, but this time they didn’t need overtime. Ontario scored on three different skaters and relied on solid goaltending from Erik Portillo to earn their third win of the young season.

Here are my takeaways from last night’s win:

Three goals in the second period were all that was needed

All of the Reign offense came in the middle frame. The Reign scored three times on seven shots on goal by Taylor Ward (power play), Jack Hughes, and Koehn Ziemmer. In four games (a small sample size), the Reign have scored 14 goals, and eight of them have come in the second period. It wasn’t a pretty offensive game, but the Reign did just enough in the middle frame to secure the win.

Strong defending

For the second straight game, I thought the Reign defense looked sharper, and I was impressed with their backchecking in transition. Kenny Connors, Lane Pederson, Grant Slukynsky, and Francesco Pinelli, to name a few, were noticeable in that regard. The defensemen also played well and blocked shots. These last two games, after having a week off, have seen the Reign’s play in the neutral zone and man-on-man defensive zone scheme be on point.

Erik Portillo makes 25 saves

The Reign have three goalies on their roster, and balancing playing time among all three is one of the Reign’s unique storylines so far. Through the first three games, all three netminders (Erik Portillo, Hampton Slukynsky, and Carter George) got a start. With one round of the rotation complete, Portillo started yesterday and had a much better game.

Portillo made 25 saves on 27 shots, and got help from his defense on two goalmouth scrambles. That doesn’t take away from Portillo’s night. I didn’t see him move as much in net as in his first outing, which helped him make the save and keep rebounds from being put in harm’s way (though there were several). His best save came in a 4-on-4 situation where Gulls forward Matthew Phillips was in alone on a breakaway, and Portillo made a calm glove save.

After the completion of their home-and-home series against the Coachella Valley Firebirds on October 3rd, head Coach Andrew Lord after the game admitted it would be hard to find playing time for all three with the start of the season being slow, but having those mid-week games, leading to three or four in a week, would come in handy in balancing the playing time. Starting next week, the Reign will have three games a week for the next three weeks.

The SoCal rivalry is back?

The Reign have built a fierce rivalry with the San Jose Barracuda over the past two seasons, a strong one with Coachella Valley since they entered the league, but the one with San Diego has been on-and-off over the last three seasons, in my opinion.

Last night felt like the good ol’ Gulls-Reign rivalry from before Coachella Valley existed. After every whistle, it seemed like there were scrums. Things were chippy, and there was a fight immediately after San Diego took a 1-0 lead.

The constant roughing penalties and hard hits added to it. Last year, the rivalry felt like it faded because the teams played only four times against each other and because the rivalry between the Barracuda and Reign emerged as heated. It’s great to have this feeling back if you are a Gulls or Reign fan.

NOTES:

*Lane Pederson continues to rack up the points. He has recorded at least one point in all four games so far this season. His power-play assist tied him for the team lead with three, and he leads all Reign skaters with seven points.

*Joe Hicketts, Scott Perunovich, and Grant Slukynsky recorded another assist. They all have an assist in back-to-back games.

*After being a healthy scratch last game, defenseman Jared Woolley was inserted back into the lineup, being paired with Angus Booth. He had his first pro fight against Gulls defenseman Travis Mitchell.

*Forward Vojtěch Čihař and defenseman Henry Brzustewicz were healthy scratches. This was Čihař’s first time as a healthy scratch and Brzustewicz’s second in the team’s first four games.

*Carter George served as the team’s backup goalie. Hampton Slukynsky was given the night off.

*Jack Hughes recorded his first goal of the season.

*Koehn Ziemmer tallied his second goal of the season. He’s played in the top six the last three games.

*The Reign have been shorthanded at least four times in all four games. That’s an area they want to clean up. The penalty kill has gone 11-for-12 in their last two games.

*The Reign accomplished their third multi-goal comeback victory this season; they had four last season.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign return home to face the Henderson Silver Knights on Saturday, October 17th. The game starts at 6 PM PST, and you can watch it on FloSports. If you can’t watch, you can listen on the Ontario Reign Radio Network.

Featured image credit: San Diego Gulls

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