FINAL – Ontario 4, San Diego 3

The Ontario Reign came from three goals down in a highly entertaining 4-3 victory over the San Diego Gulls. The Reign got goals from Sheldon Rempal, Brett Sutter, Sam Herr and Sean Walker in the victory, as well as two assists apiece from Philippe Maillet and Matt Roy. Goaltender Michael Leighton, making his first start with the Reign, made 22 saves in the victory.

While it felt like Ontario was the stronger team in the opening period, the Reign found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-0 deficit. First, the Gulls capitalized on an Ontario turnover as forward Sam Steel finished a Joseph Blandisi feed for his first goal of the season.

San Diego then struck twice on the power play in less than three minutes to open up a three-goal advantage. First, forward Max Jones saw his shot deflected past Leighton for his third tally of the season, before forward Troy Terry made a nice move walking in from the right point and scored through the five hole with his seventh goal of the season.

The Reign responded with three goals of their own in the middle stanza, beginning with Rempal’s seventh of the season 4:10 into the frame. Forward Brad Morrison made a nice play to get him the puck, before Rempal buried from the right side of the slot to get the visitors on the board.

Just 2:03 later, Sutter pulled the Reign to within one, with a power-play goal from the high slot beating San Diego netminder Kevin Boyle, Sutter’s third tally of the season. Ontario knotted the game at three with another special-teams tally, this a shorthanded strike from Herr, at the 14:02 mark of the middle stanza.

Exactly seven minutes into the third period, Walker put the Reign ahead for the first time as the right-shot defenseman fired through traffic and past Boyle for his sixth tally of the season. After forward Sam Kurker made a nice play to win the puck behind the net, Walker sent a quick shot through for the game-winning goal.

Ontario has now won five of its last seven games and has moved back to the .500 mark at 6-6-2-1 after a slow start to the season. The Reign are back in action this weekend with a pair of divisional contests, beginning on Friday evening on home ice against Bakersfield, with puck drop slated for 7 PM.

Mike Stothers on tonight’s game
It was really weird, because we came in after the first 20 and we were trailing by three and I thought that it was one of the best first periods we’ve played all year. Our forecheck was good, we were over the puck, we did everything we wanted to do, expect the one time we got caught with three guys low, they came down and had an odd-man rush and scored. We had two power plays and didn’t score and then as soon as they get one, that’s what San Diego lives for. They scored on the first one and they scored on the second one and the next thing you know it’s 3-0. For the first 15 minutes, we really didn’t give up much of anything and that’s what we talked about between periods. We played well. So, go out there at the start of the second and don’t read about what the score is, just keep playing. We were able to chip away and the guys battled back hard, but we didn’t deviate, we just kept playing the way we needed to play. I think it’s reflective in the short totals at the end of the game, 25 against, and that’s pretty good in this building.

On the team’s confidence not wavering, despite a 3-0 deficit, and the mood remaining high
It was actually good – We look at it as learning, we’re learning how to win. We’re learning to find ways to win now and I think that’s a good thing. The fact that we were able to come back, in this rink, and get a victory…I think we had eight penalties to kill and I think we kept them to 25 shots total, we did a lot of good things. You can’t lose sight of that and you can’t let that affect your emotion. Big deal, it’s 3-0. You start the second and it’s 0-0 and you’ve got forty minutes of 0-0 hockey. It was good. I’m happy, it was great for the guys, I’m proud of them.

On Michael Leighton’s play and winning his first start with the Reign
I mean, he hasn’t played in a long time, but that’s a pure example of a guy that’s got some veteran savvy. That might’ve rattled a young guy in his first start or a first-year player but he just got better and better as the game went on. To his credit, he’s been an All-Star, he’s been in the NHL, he’s been in the American League – he’s pretty much Johnny Cash, ‘I’ve been everywhere, man.’ There’s a quiet confidence exuded from him and you could see that he wasn’t the least bit rattled. He was just going to get better and it was reflected from him and it spread out to the rest of the guys. That’s what your veteran guys do and he’s now a veteran guy in our net. Guys like Sutts and Moly, they keep it real in the room and on the bench and you go from there.

via San Diego Gulls


via San Diego Gulls


via San Diego Gulls

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