REIGN FINAL – Reign 3, Gulls 4 (SO) – Kaliyev, Sturm

Despite 31 saves from Erik Portillo to keep them in the game, the Ontario Reign (16-8-0-1) suffered their first shootout loss of the season to the San Diego Gulls (9-16-1-2) by a 4-3 score on Friday night at Pechanga Arena.

Ontario never trailed in the contest, but couldn’t hold any of their three one-goal leads and came up empty in four rounds during the skill session. Francesco Pinelli scored twice for the Reign during the first period, while Arthur Kaliyev added a power play goal in the middle frame in a losing effort.

BOX SCORE

Pinelli found the back of the net for his first goal of the night on the opening shift of the game, scoring just 21 seconds into the contest after Martin Chromiak led him in the offensive end with a pass to the left wing. Pinelli went right to the net and beat goaltender Oscar Dansk with a wrist shot up high to make it 1-0.

San Diego evened the game at 1-1 with a shorthanded breakaway strike from Ryan Carpenter at 16:05 of the opening frame.

But Pinelli had the Reign back in front again just 2:25 later with his second tally which came on a wrist shot from the high slot in between the circles. Pinelli’s sixth of the year had assists credited to Angus Booth and Shawn Element.

The Gulls tied things up 1:12 into the second on a goal by Pavol Regenda to even the score at 2-2.

Then Kaliyev made it a 3-2 lead for Ontario, their third advantage of the night, by scoring his first of the season on the power play at 3:12 from Caleb Jones and Jeff Malott.

However, Carpenter knotted the score again at 3-3 for San Diego with his second goal of the game on the power play at 8:31 of the middle period.  which had the teams even as they began the third period.

Midway through the second frame, the Gulls inserted Calle Clang into the contest between the pipes. The netminder played the final 34:32 of the contest and did not allow a goal, stopping all 13 shots that came his way as well as the four chances Ontario had during the shootout. Dansk ended with eight saves on 11 shots during 30:28.

Both teams were credited with two shots on goal during an even overtime period which led to the skill session. San Diego held a 35-24 shots-on-goal margin during the 65 minutes of play and got the only shootout strike from Yegor Sidorov in the fourth and final round.

Special teams were also a major part of the game, with the Reign holding the Gulls to a 1-for-8 mark on the power play while going 1-for-5 on their own chances.

The loss snapped a season-high six-game winning streak for Ontario that began in San Diego on Dec. 7. By earning one point, the Reign took sole possession of third place in the Pacific Division standings with 33 points from 25 games played.

Postgame reactions from Kaliyev and head coach Marco Sturm are below –

Arthur Kaliyev

Marco Sturm

Ontario continues its schedule on Saturday night with a matchup in Palm Desert against the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Acrisure Arena at 6 p.m. beginning at 7 p.m.