Weekly Wrap-up: Reign Struggles, Need Full 60
- Updated: March 6, 2017
After a couple of downers and one upper for the Ontario Reign last week, the local heroes find themselves 29-16-8-0, five points behind San Jose Barracuda in the Pacific Division. The team next faces the Bakersfield Condors at 7 p.m., Friday, March 10 at the Rabobank Arena.
So what the heck happened last week? Perhaps the lack of a full effort for the full 60 minutes of these games.
Wednesday, March 1, we get blown out by the 6th place Stockton Heat 6-2. Two days later, we turn down the Heat to the temp of 2-1. Then last Saturday, the Tucson Roadrunners turned the tables on the Reign, taking that effort 2-1.
In the 6-2 blowout, the Heat and Reign tallied identical shots over three periods (36), however the Heat scored five consecutive goals, on two of its four powerplays, including one by – hey remember him – Linden Vey. Back after 18 games from injury was Michael Mersch who scored his 11th goal of the season. Starting in his 36th straight game, Jack Campbell was pulled in the second period after making a whopping one save in four shots. He was replaced by another familiar name, Jeff Zatkoff who made his AHL-Reign debut after being sent to Ontario from the NHL affiliate Los Angeles Kings. Six goals in a game? The most the Reign have given up all season.
The team would have to rebound, and it did on March 3. This time we’d have a new goaltender start a game. Zatkoff made 28 saves as the Reign beat the Heat 2-1at Citizens Business Bank Arena. The new netminder had to stop 12 of 13 shots in the second period alone. Goals from the Reign came from defenseman Alex Lintuniemi and the mighty Mersch. With nine more stops from “Zats” in the third, the Reign had its victory and the new goaltender had his first win for this team.
So, 2-1 was a decent enough score … unless you are talking about switching which team has the more points. On Saturday, the Roadrunners team netted two against the Reign’s one. Once again, Zatkoff would take center net. Making 37 saves on 39 shots wouldn’t be enough, as all the Reign’s offense could muster was a goal by Brett Sutter, his 14th, from Lintuniemi and Devin Setoguchi. Hey, that last name is familiar too!
Through the Reign Insider, coach Mike Stothers commented on what was missing for the team: “The first and second period.”
And for the future?
“We’re going to try to play like we did in the third for a full sixty minutes. We’re going to try and actually play back-to-back games together, which we haven’t done in a while. So, there’s lots of things to work on in this upcoming week. Monday through Thursday we’ve got practice, so maybe that’s what we need.”
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