Weekly Wrap-Up – Successful Reign Take 3 of 4 Games
- Updated: December 20, 2016
In last week’s action, the Ontario Reign improved to 13-6-5-0 – second place in the Pacific Division, three points behind leading Stockton Heat – with three wins and one loss: a thrilling 3-2 win over rival San Diego Gulls Tuesday, a 5-4 loss to the Stockton Heat Wednesday, a holding-on 3-2 win over the Bakersfield Condors Friday, and finally a 4-3 overtime win verses the San Jose Barracuda on Sunday. Whew!
In the Tuesday, December 13 win over the Gulls at the Valley View Center in San Diego, the Reign came back in the third to score two goals, one in the last two minutes of the match to beat its rivals 3-2. The Sean Backman goal – his first in 14 games – came at 18:25, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Jack Campbell took the win in goal with 18 saves on 20 shots.
In the December 14 match, the Reign attempted a comeback after being down 5-1 at the end of two periods. Scoring three goals in the third period, the last from Backman at 17:40, the team couldn’t muster a tying goal and lost to the Heat 5-4. Starting goalie Campbell saved 12 on 17 shots and was replaced in the third period by Jack Flinn who stopped all of the 11 shots he faced. Park that one. Darn it all.
The Reign came back to the winning ways in the December 16 match, taking a 3-0 lead before holding on for a 3-2 victory over the Bakersfield Condors. Each scorer notched their 8th goal of the season: Michael Mersch, T.J. Hensick and Jonny Brodzinski, the latter with a classic spin-o-rama backhand shot. Through Lindsay Czarnecki, the Ontario Reign Insider, Mersch said, “That was a complete 60 minutes for us for the most part.” Goalie Campbell, who took the W after 29 saves on 31 shots, said, “I thought our team played great tonight. It was exciting to get the lead early in the game, that always gives you confidence. Didn’t try to think about too much, just tried to go out and have fun and play the game, and it worked out for everybody.”
In the final game of the week, December 18, the Reign forced an overtime against the San Jose Barracuda with a third period goal by Brett Sutter with less than four minutes remaining, before taking the win with a Mersch power play goal 1:07 into the extra period, giving the team a 4-3 victory. Though San Jose went three for three on its power play, Reign goalie Campbell notched his 10th win of the season, making 40 saves.
Reign head coach Mike Stothers said, “When we had the opportunity in overtime, got a power play, we were able to make it count. Very resilient bunch. This team never gets discouraged. They never feel like they’re out of it. Soupy (Campbell) made some good saves for us. We’re happy with it; we’ll take it and move on.”
The Reign will take some time off before playing against the Bakersfield Condors Monday, December 26 at 7 p.m. PST at the Citizens Bank Arena.
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