1/27 REIGN FINAL – Reign 4, Roadrunners 5 – Sturm, Santini

Three late goals got the Ontario Reign (22-15-3-1) within one shot of tying the game, but they were unable to overcome an early deficit and fell to the Tucson Roadrunners (25-13-1-1) by a final score of 5-4 on Saturday night at the Tucson Convention Center.

Akil Thomas and Charles Hudon scored for the second straight game in a losing effort for Ontario, while Samuel Helenius netted two goals in a 30-second span during the third and Steven Santini posted his first multi-point effort of the season with a pair of assists.

BOX SCORE

Goaltender Aaron Dell made his first appearance as a member of the Reign, starting the contest and finishing with 24 saves. Matt Villalta earned the win for the Roadrunners by turning out 29 shots in the contest.

Cameron Hebig opened the scoring for Tucson at 13:46 of the first, pushing a rebound from the side of the net past Dell to make it 1-0.

1:23 later, Milos Kelemen tipped home a shot by Travis Barron to give the home team a 2-0 lead which they held into the first intermission. Tucson outshot Ontario 14-6 in the first 20 minutes.

The Roadrunners extended their lead to 3-0 at 7:34 of the second when Colin Theisen scored with a shot into the upper part of the net from the high slot.

Akil Thomas got the Reign on the board 35 seconds later, recording his 15th goal of the season on a rebound in front from Tyler Madden and Cody Haiskanen at 8:09 of the middle period.

But Kelemen responded for Tucson before the end of the period at 16:07 to put the Roadrunners back in front by three at 4-1.

The final Roadrunners’ tally came from Josh Doan at 4:39 of the third period and gave Tucson its largest lead of the game, seemingly putting things out of reach for the Reign.

Ontario didn’t go down without a fight, however, scoring three times in a span of eight minutes to get back in the game. Hudon had the first Reign strike of the third on the power play at 8:14, also netting his 15th of the year from Kevin Connauton and TJ Tynan.

Then Helenius knocked home a rebound off a shot by Hayden Hodgson at 15:36 to make it 5-3 and deflected an attempt by Santini into the goal 30 seconds later to get Ontario within a goal of Tucson.

The Reign pulled Dell for an extra attacker in the final minute but were unable to find an equalizer. Ontario outshot the Roadrunners by a 16-9 margin in the final frame.

After the Reign fell short with a final attempt at the buzzer, a scrum broke out around Villalta’s net that resulted in nine penalties at 20:00 of the third. Tucson’s Hunter Drew received a 10-minute unsportsmanlike conduct infraction, while Milos Kelemen was given five minutes for fighting and a 10-minute game misconduct (aggressor). Montana Onyebuchi and Austin Poganski also both received misconducts for continuing altercation, which is what Reign players Kevin Connauton, Hayden Hodgson, Akil Thomas and TJ Tynan were also given.

Despite 104 total penalty minutes in the game, there were just three power plays. Ontario went 1-for-2 on the man-advantage and also killed off the Roadrunners’ only opportunity (1-for-3).

Marco Sturm

Steven Santini

 

The Reign return home for three contests in Ontario next week, beginning on Tuesday night when the battle the Colorado Eagles at Toyota Arena at 7 p.m.