Monday’s Ontario Reign Wrap-up: Imoos Make History
- Updated: October 24, 2016
When we last left our Ontario Reign heroes, they had soundly beaten the San Diego Gulls in their season opener 2 – 0. A mostly successful weekend saw the Reign play two overtime games – beating the Texas Stars 6 – 5 on Friday and then losing to the San Jose Barracudas 5 – 4 Saturday.
The 2 – 0 – 1 Reign will next meet up with the Texas Stars at 5:30 p.m., Friday, October 28 at the Cedar Park Center.
The big drama came in Saturday’s game when the Reign had, ironically enough, a total of two goalies with the same last name: Imoo. A 22-year-old Jonah Imoo was backed up by 46-year-old Dusty Imoo. Seriously, this was actually the first time in AHL history that a father and son were on the same roster as starter and back-up goalie.
Since the Los Angeles Kings goalie Jeff Zatkoff had to be placed on IR with a groin injury (they are passing those out in LA like candy), the Reign’s Jack Campbell was sent up to the NHL affiliate team, leaving the goalie coach Dusty Imoo as the backup on short notice.
In that Saturday game against the Barracudas, the elder Imoo watched on as younger Imoo turned away 25 shots in a strong premier.
As quoted by Jim Alexander of the Press Enterprise, Dusty thought it was a “nutty” day, but one that would have to be treated normal. “I knew there would be a lot of attention drawn to it. It’s enough pressure for a kid like that going into this situation, never mind having your dad backing you up. I tried to defuse it early, but inside I was more nervous than he was. He looked like he was ready to go,” said Dusty.
Though Jonah only had three professional games under his belt, he outperformed his counterpart in net Mantas Armalis who turned away only 11 of 15 shots. The winning goal came via Daniel O’Regan with assists from Tim Heed and Marcus Sorensen at 3:29 in a OT the Reign tallied zero shots.
According to the Game Recap on the Ontario Reign website, Jonah said, “I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a while. I’ve worked really hard, and I’ve had fun but it was a really intense game going into OT.”
Though posting few shots, the Reign offensive standout was Patrick Bjorkstrand who registered two goals and one assist.
“I just wish it would’ve had a better ending for Jonah,” said Head Coach Mike Stothers in the Game Recap. “That’s a real tough situation to come in on and you know it’s tough on him. It’s tough on his dad. He’s got a job to do as goalie coach and he can’t be partial and yet, he’s trying to root for his son.”
The Friday home-opening game saw more offense from the Reign, as the team had a shooting match with the Stars, posting 31 shots to the Stars’ 35, including a 14-shot first period which saw the team go up 4 – 1. The Stars slowly chipped the lead away against Goalie Jack Campbell (30 saves), scoring two goals in the third period forcing the overtime.
It only took one shot in overtime for the Reign to grab the win. At 0:56 on OT, right-winger Jonny Brodzinski, from Kevin Gravel and Adrian Kempe, slapped one home.
Said Brodzinski in the Ontario Reign Game Recap, “I took a slap shot and it fortunately went in. Every time we play these guys, it seems to be a shootout.”
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