The Ontario Reign eliminated the Bakersfield Condors Saturday night in a nail biter at Mechanics Bank Arena.
Erik Portillo picked up right where he left off, making multiple great saves, picking up the Reign defensemen early on.
Despite this, the Condors still got the first tally of the game. On the power play, Seth Griffith snuck the puck past Portillo on a goalmouth scramble.
Although the Condors led 1-0 after the opening frame, consider the Reign lucky, as it was not their best hockey to any degree.
It was a tighter contest in the second period, with the lone goal coming from Taylor Ward.
A beautiful feed from Brandt Clarke off the draw set Ward up for a one-timer, evening the game at 1.
The third period was the best period from the Reign, though still very tight. Even though the Reign outshot the Condors 15-2, it did not feel that way.
Both teams refused to make the big mistake, up until about the 3 minute mark, where Max Wanner would turn the puck over in his own zone, allowing Tyler Madden to retrieve and fire a wrist shot that went over Olivier Rodrigue’s pad.
Madden’s third goal of the series would end up being the biggest one, giving the Reign a late lead in game two.
Bakersfield emptied their net with 1:58 remaining, and did not go down without a fight. A solid final effort from the Condors, but eventually Hudon found the puck on his stick and launched it the length of the ice, scoring an empty netter, sealing the deal.
Here are my three takeaways from the game:
Tyler Madden
If there was an MVP for this series, it would definitely be Tyler Madden.
His three goals so far in the playoffs leads the entire AHL. Madden has been such a contributor the entire season, and has kind of been overlooked by many.
The 24 year old played in all but one game this season for Ontario, being very durable on a somewhat injury prone team this season.
And even though he is not the flashiest player, or maybe does not put up the best stats, he is a consistent top 6 player, who makes the skaters around him better.
When asked about his game winning goal, this is what Marco Sturm had to say, “He can be very streaky and that’s just what he does. It was probably not his best game but when it matters he shows up and he puts the puck in the net.”
Madden was the X-Factor in this series for the Reign, and they will certainly need him to keep coming up big in the next series.
That’s Reign Hockey
All year long, the Reign would find themselves in these close games often. I like to say every Reign game is like an “instant classic.”
You can say they prepared all year for a game like this, in the playoffs, when it matters most. They pull away again in another nail biter that has you at the edge of your seat.
Sturm mentioned that when you win those kinds of games during the regular season, “you’re automatically going to be confident.”
In the Reign’s last nine home games, they were all within one score down to the last five minutes of the game. The Reign won eight of them.
Clean Up The Power Play
Although the Reign took the win, there were some major concerns. The power play was absolutely dreadful in this game.
Not only did the power play go 0-5, but there were little to no chances for the first power play unit.
In fact, their best chances came from when Sturm sent out the power play two unit to start the power play. Yea, it was that bad.
The Condors played the power play perfectly, just keep Fagemo to the outside, and do not let his one time shot beat you.
Of course, the Reign had no answers to this today. Hopefully down the line, they figure this out, because it will bite them further into the tournament.
But as they say, a win is a win, and they won the series against a very good Bakersfield Condors team. Onto round two.