3/11 REIGN FINAL – Reign 6, Wranglers 2 – Sturm, Madden

The Ontario Reign (31-19-3-3) skated to a 6-2 victory against the Calgary Wranglers (29-21-4-2) on Monday night, claiming a sweep of the series at the Scotiabank Saddledome and tying an AHL club record with their eighth straight win.

Steven Santini scored twice for Ontario in the contest and added an assist to secure his second three-point effort of the year. Other offensive standouts for the Reign included Kevin Connauton, Charles Hudon and Tyler Madden, who each recorded a goal and an assist and goaltender Aaron Dell posted his fourth straight victory by making 31 saves.

BOX SCORE

The Reign’s current eight-game winning streak has vaulted them into sole possession of third place in the AHL’s Pacific Division standings with 68 points. Ontario is also just a single point behind second-place Colorado (69).

Although Ontario had control early, putting the first eight shots of the game on Calgary’s net, a neutral zone turnover came back to plague them and Adam Klapka put the Wranglers ahead 1-0 at 9:20 of the first, scoring on a backdoor tap-in with the team’s second shot of the night.

The Reign got on the board and evened the score up at 1-1 less than a minute later on a shot by Connauton at 10:11 from the left point that got past the right pad of Wranglers’ netminder Oscar Dansk. Forwards Taylor Ward and Samuel Helenius were each awarded assists on the play.

Klapka struck again at 15:13 of the first to regain the lead for Calgary, this time with seven seconds left in the Wranglers’ first power play opportunity. His shot from the right circle beat Reign goaltender Aaron Dell to make it 2-1.

But Ontario evened things up once again when Santini used a shot from just beyond the top of the right circle to net his fourth of the year and tie the game at 2-2 with 2:30 remaining in the opening period. Hudon earned the primary helper on the play for his 29th assist of the campaign.

Connauton, who dropped the gloves with Clark Bishop 13 seconds into the game, was credited with the second assist on Santini’s strike to accomplish a ‘Gordie Howe Hat Trick’ for the second time this season in the opening 20 minutes.

The game was still even to begin the second period until Madden gave the Reign their first lead of the night at 4:17 by redirecting a shot from Luke Rowe past Dansk to make it a 3-2 game. Francesco Pinelli was also in on the scoring play in the offensive zone and picked up the second assist.

Ontario then extended its lead to 4-2 at 14:13 when an initial shot by Martin Chromiak got knocked in by Santini for his second goal of the game. Samuel Fagemo earned the second helper on the goal, giving him a team-leading 51 points on the season in just 38 games.

The Reign got more insurance on their lead at 11:23 of the third when a 2-on-1 rush saw Madden feed Hudon for his 19th goal of the year with a perfect finish just under the crossbar.

Nikita Pavlychev closed out the scoring with an unassisted shorthanded empty-net goal at 17:13 of the third, his second tally in as many days.

While Ontario was unable to score on the power play, finishing 0-for-3, they only allowed one tally on the man-advantage and Calgary ended the game 1-for-3 with an extra man. Calgary held a slim one-goal edge in shots on net during the contest, 33-32. Dansk stopped 26 shots for the Wranglers in a losing effort.

Postgame thoughts from Reign head coach Marco Sturm as well as Madden are below.

Marco Sturm

Tyler Madden

The Reign head back to Southern California for their third game in four days when they visit the San Diego Gulls for a SoCal Series matchup at Pechanga Arena on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.