December 11: Reign game breakdown

Reign game breakdown
The Reign broke out for a insurmountable lead in the first period behind goals by Mike Amadio, Patrick Bjorkstrand and Adrian Kempe and rode it to a 5-2 victory over visiting Charlotte on Saturday night. A better start was imperative after the Reign had given up a similar 3-0 lead against Tucson a night prior before battling back for an overtime loss. Amadio opened the scoring at 4:50 of the first, smartly corralling a rebound of a Paul LaDue shot that went off the backboards. Bjorkstrand made it 2-0 by taking a long rebound from the slot of a Michael Latta-Andrew Crescenzi rush to beat Charlotte starter Alex Nedeljkovic five hole. Kempe broke his nine-game goal drought with a power play marker late in the period as he was opportunistic around the net and found a bouncing puck in front. The sides traded goals in the second with Kurtis MacDermid capitalizing on the power play and Levko Koper scoring late. Again goals were traded in the third with Zac Leslie being set up by Teddy Purcell and Koper scoring his second of the night, but in all the first period lead was far too much for Charlotte to overcome. Goalie Jack Campbell finished with 19 saves on 21 shots for his seventh win of the season.

Best quote
Kempe, on his play of late and breaking his drought: “I think I played more aggressive and more desperate in front of the net. … You’ve got to put in the work.” And head coach Mike Stothers, when told Kempe said he’s trying to play with desperation: “It just means he’s listening, so that’s a good thing.”

Three stars
–Adrian Kempe – The goal drought had weighed heavily on Kempe, who at times had been subject to Stothers’ wrath in prior postgame interviews. The former first-rounder had an assist the night before to break his point drought and so the goal — the eventual game-winner — lifted the frustration that was following him around for far too long.
–Teddy Purcell – The word attitude was used twice in the postgame scrums – once by Purcell himself and later by Stothers, who commended the veteran with embracing being in Ontario rather than feeling sorry for himself. Purcell now has points in all three of his games by adding a two-assist performance in this one, his first game in Ontario. He patiently waited and set up Leslie’s one-timer in the third period.
–Mike Amadio – The young, rookie center has benefited greatly by the addition of Purcell on his left wing but he also took command of his own game by scoring the all important opening goal on a shift where was all over the puck and made a great read to notice the goalie completely out of position. Amadio, who added an assist, is now on a four-game point streak with two goals and three assists and had his second multi-point game of the season.

Turning point
The Checkers, trailing 3-0, took three penalties in the second period and began to tire themselves out in the process. The last of those three calls resulted in a power play goal for MacDermid on a slapshot from the left circle that trickled over the goal line. Although the Checkers scored their first goal of the game with just 14 seconds left in the period, all the damage was done and the Reign were able to ride out the third.

Stat fact
–3 – Goals scored on the Reign’s first eight shots in the first period.

Lineups and injuries
Former Reign center Kris Newbury was scratched for Charlotte and after visiting with him between the second the third periods he revealed he nearly had the tip of his ring finger taken off when it was hit by a shot the night prior against Bakersfield.

This and that off-ice
It was “8-Bit” night and the Reign wore special jerseys with Jonny Brodzinski’s going for a top $2,100 in the post-game auction.

Next up
In the midst of their busiest month of the season, the Reign have three games next week: Tuesday at San Diego, followed by home games Wednesday against Stockton and Friday against San Diego before wrapping up the week in San Jose on Sunday, their last game before the holiday break.