The Ontario Reign took care of the ninth-place San Diego Gulls Saturday night at Toyota Arena.
A rivalry game plus the last home game of the season for the Reign, the atmosphere in the arena had a playoff atmosphere.
Rookie Francesco Pinelli got the scoring started, shooting a wrister that went through traffic. Credit to Quinn Olson, making his AHL debut, for screening Gulls goaltender Tomas Suchanek on the goal.
Things were smooth sailing for the Reign throughout the first period. Shots on goal stood at 16 to 8 by the end of the frame.
Alex Turcotte looked like an NHL veteran by the way he was skating in the opening period. A positive for Kings fans, as he looked like a man among boys.
While on a counterattack rush, the Gulls took advantage of a weak back check by Ontario’s fourth line, with Drew Helleson finishing a one-time shot off a pass by Sasha Pastujov.
The Reign responded immediately. A high stick from Konnor Smith drew blood on Olson, giving the Reign a 4-minute power play.
Samuel Fagemo broke through, scoring his 40th goal of the season, putting Ontario on top 2-1.
San Diego would get a power-play goal of their own, with Trevor Carrick tallying his 8th of the year, evening the game at two.
In the final frame, Olson would commit his second penalty of the game, and for the second time, he would come out of the box on an immediate breakaway.
Olson fanned on the first one, and on the second one, Helleson would knock off the net trying to knock the puck off Olson’s stick, resulting in a penalty shot.
Taylor Ward would take the shot, and with great patience, buried it past the diving Suchanek.
Once again, the Gulls would strike back, this time being Pavol Regenda dangling around Brandt Clarke, and scoring on a diving shot.
The score would remain 3-3 at the end of regulation, some free hockey on fan appreciation night, how nice.
A huge tripping call on Glenn Gawdin would set the Reign up with a 4 on 3 power play, and you just knew what was going to happen.
Of course, a one-timer from Samuel Fagemo would end the night. His 41st goal of the year would surpass Martin Frk (21-22) for the most goals in a single season for an Ontario Reign player.
A very important two points for the Reign. The threshold for home-ice advantage is 4th place or higher in the division, and the Reign now sit four points above the 5th place Colorado Eagles.
Here are my three takeaways from the game
Too Comfortable In Close Games:
Every single Reign home game has felt like an “instant classic” the past month.
Dating back to March 1st, coincidentally also against the Gulls where the Reign won 3-0, all the games have come down to the final five minutes.
As for recent games, Ontario has had to dig deep and come back from multi-score deficits, let alone from teams that are not making the playoffs.
If this team plans on making a deep run in the dance, you are going to need to win games convincingly.
Head coach did not seem too concerned about this, though, saying there were “a couple little mistakes” in this game that kept the Gulls in the game.
Entire Team Is Contributing:
From Fagemo on the first line to Pinelli on the fourth, every single skater is contributing out on the ice for Ontario.
Obviously, the Reign would look a lot different if Fagemo was not present on this team. The waiver wire pickup re-joined the team on November 11th, and has scored 41 goals, which is tied for the AHL lead, and is the all-time single-season goal leader for the Reign franchise.’
Moving down the order, the second line was excellent. Consisting of guys like Ward and Turcotte, who both have played huge contributing factors all season for the Reign.
As for the bottom six, the third line is considered “the big boy line” to Marco Sturm. Consisting of three guys six foot three and taller, their presence is felt whenever they’re on the ice.
Last but not least, and probably my favorite line, the fourth line has played great. Francesco Pinelli officially looks like someone who can compete for a spot on the Kings in the coming years.
Hayden Hodgson is very gritty and is not someone you want to see skating your way if you have to puck.
Everyone has played their role well as of late, which explains why the Reign have won 8 of their last 9.
Home-Ice Advantage
Early on in the season, the Reign had trouble winning at home and was dominant on the road.
Their special teams statistics would suggest it is still that way, as their penalty kill is first on the road, and power play is second.
Despite all this, the Reign would still love to play at home come playoff time. When I asked Marco Sturm if he would like home-ice advantage, he had this to say
“I would really like it, we struggled for a long time, but now we get it done. Nothing we worry about right now but I think we definitely would like to start at home so we don’t have to travel and also play in front of our fans and feel good.”
The Reign will head on the road for the final four games of the regular season, as we will have to wait and see whether or not they play at home for the first round of playoffs.