REIGN FINAL – Reign 5, Silver Knights 2 – Wroblewski, Frk

The Ontario Reign (7-0-0-1) top line combined for eight points including two goals and two assists from Martin Frk and two goals and an assist by TJ Tynan to defeat the Henderson Silver Knights (3-3-1-0) by a final score of 5-2 on Wednesday at the Orleans Arena.

BOX SCORE

Goaltender Matt Villalta stopped 30 shots to earn the victory for the Reign and improve to 5-0-0 on the season. Ontario extended their winning streak to six games and their season-opening point streak to eight contests. The LA Kings’ AHL affiliate leads the Pacific Division with a .938 points percentage.

More from Head Coach John Wroblewski as well as Frk below.

Ontario has now won six straight games and leads the AHL’s Pacific Division with a .938 points percentage.

Henderson took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Sven Bärtschi just 1:24 into the game, but the Silver Knights were unable to get anything else past goaltender Matt Villalta despite piling up 16 shots on goal in the first period.

The Reign tied things up exactly eight minutes into the middle frame during a penalty kill when Austin Wagner won a battle for the puck in the Henderson zone and fed Sean Durzi for his third tally of the year. The strike was Ontario’s first shorthanded goal of the 2021-22 season.

Less than two minutes later after consecutive penalties to Henderson, Tynan gave the Reign their first lead of the night, scoring his second in as many games on the 5-on-3 man-advantage at 9:52. Assists on the goal went to Vladimir Tkachev, his first AHL point, as well as Frk.

Henderson came close to tying the game back up after a neutral zone turnover by Ontario led to a play that was initially called a goal on the ice. But after a discussion by the officials, the call was changed to no goal after it was determined that Villalta was interfered with on the play.

Ontario gained momentum after a wild sequence at both ends of the ice. Henderson’s Pavel Dorofeyev hit the post on a breakaway and while the rebound was slowly moving towards the goal line, Villalta and the Reign defense scrambled to keep the puck out of the net. Immediately after, an outlet pass from Madden set Frk in alone on a breakaway of his own and he buried his fifth goal of the year to put the Reign on top by a 3-1 score.

Before the second came to a close, Henderson cut the score to 3-2 on a goal by Zack Hayes that came at 18:42.

Ontario played their best period in the third, recording a 13-6 advantage in shots on goal while scoring two more times to put the game out of reach.

Tynan found the back of the net for the second time in the game with a wrist shot from the slot at 9:18 before Frk added the final strike of the night less than two minutes later at 10:44 to push the Reign out to a 5-2 lead. The linemates each recorded the first assist on each other’s insurance tallies.

With a 1-for-4 night on the power play, Ontario continued its streak of scoring on the man-advantage in each game this season. The penalty kill was no slouch either, finishing a perfect 5-for-5 on the night. Henderson led in shots on goal in the loss, 34-29. Logan Thompson, who got the start in net for the Silver Knights, made 20 saves in a losing effort.

The Reign wrap up their four-game road trip on Saturday night when they take on the Bakersfield Condors at 7 p.m. PST at Mechanics Bank Arena. Ontario will return home to Toyota Arena for a Sunday matinee with Colorado at 3 p.m.

John Wroblewski
On the team’s start and dominant third period
Yeah extremely slow start. Credit to Henderson for pushing the pace and being on their game and they forced us into playing a defensive style with their tenacity and just overall will. Let’s look at the positives and say how good Matt Villalta was for us and we had the timely scoring and that’s what it takes sometimes. There’s got to be different avenues to win, we’ve just got to recharge the batteries. That’s two games in a row that we haven’t played our best but found a way.

On the team’s 5/5 night on the penalty kill
We were actually talking about it before the game, it was the highlight of our play tonight besides the individual efforts from a few guys so our penalty kill was real sharp, denied a lot of entries, it was probably our best game in denying clean entry, and the in-zone, very few looks. We were heavy on our clears, I didn’t think we were great on our puck battles in general for the first two periods but on the penalty kill we were very good on our puck battles and it was a catalyst. We score off one to get our first goal and then we draw a penalty on that same penalty kill to get us on the power play which leads to the 5-on-3 which turned the game in our favor.

On what it was like to watch an eventful second period from the bench
Kinda crazy is the way to sum it up. We let Henderson behind us way too often, a couple of questionable goals, one that got called off which I definitely agree with. I thought that Matty got ran into and dragged into the paint. Past precedent had set that it was going to get called off and then they get a breakaway, Matty makes a great save and next thing you know, Madden finds Frk for a breakaway pass. It was just a weird, hectic period, I thought probably pretty entertaining for the fans and one where you just sort of throw your arms up afterwards and say well we’re up 3-2 somehow but that’s what happens when you have really good players.

Martin Frk