REIGN FINAL – Roadrunners 6, Reign 5 – Hajt

Michael Carcone’s hat trick performance led the Tucson Roadrunners (17-23-2-1) to a 6-5 defeat of the Ontario Reign (28-10-3-3) Saturday night in a wild back-and-forth game at the Tucson Convention Center. There were plenty of offensive highlights for Ontario in the contest, led by forward TJ Tynan, who factored in on four of the team’s five tallies with a goal and three assists.

Defender Jordan Spence also had a big night for the Reign, scoring a goal and two assists for the third 3-point game of his rookie season. In addition, Samuel Fagemo netted a goal and an assist, including a late power play tally to put Ontario within striking distance with two minutes to play.

BOX SCORE

More from Reign Assistant Coach Chris Hajt below–

Carcone gave Tucson the initial 1-0 lead at 4:13 of the opening period with a quick strike from the top of the crease off a centering feed. Later in the frame, a blast from the right point by Spence beat goaltender Ivan Prosvetov from the right point to even the game at 1-1. Spence’s third goal of the year came at 12:47 of the first with assists by Tynan and defender Christian Wolanin.

Then Martin Frk gave Ontario their first lead of the contest, scoring a power play tally just 15 seconds into his team’s first man-advantage for his 26th of the year to make it 2-1 at 15:47 of the first.

But Tucson struck twice in the final two minutes of the frame to head into the locker room for the first intermission with a lead. First, Ben McCartney provided a quick response to Frk’s goal to even the game at 2-2 and then Carcone got his second of the period on the power play to put Tucson back in front 3-2 in the final minute of the first.

Ontario turned the game around in the second, scoring twice in a span of 23 seconds to go back in front, 4-3. Tynan netted his 11th of the season off a pass from behind the net by Spence at 7:42 that included a second assist to Cameron Gaunce and Rasmus Kupari scored moments later at 8:05 off a pass by Gabriel Vilardi after an offensive zone faceoff win.

But once again Tucson got the final tally before the end of the period, with Jan Jenik finishing a play in front of the net to make it a 4-4 game at 13:15 of the second.

The Roadrunners went back in front for good on Carcone’s third of the game at 4:18 of the third. Jenik added on with his second of the night with under five minutes remaining in the game to make it 6-4 at 15:35.

In desperation, Ontario pulled goaltender Matt Villalta for an extra attacker to attempt a comeback. After a cross-checking penalty to Cameron Crotty gave the Reign a two-man advantage, Fagemo was able to find the back of the net for his 16th goal of the season at 17:56 to make it a one-goal game. But Ontario was unable to find a final equalizer in the closing seconds and fell to the Roadrunners for the third time during the 2021-22 season.

Tynan is now at 61 points on the season in just 38 outings during 2021-22 and ranks second in the AHL in overall scoring.

Ontario finished 2-for-4 on the power play in the game, while Tucson finished 1-for-3 on the man-advantage. Prosvetov earned the win for the Roadrunners with 36 saves and Villalta stopped 27 shots in a losing effort for the Reign.

Chris Hajt
On the overall play of his team in the loss to Tucson
They’re a team that plays us well. They had a good game where they capitalized on some opportunities, they go to the net hard, had some offensive zone time and eventually cashed a few goals in against us in our own zone and as a team we didn’t have our best A-game for sure and they had a good game. We made it a one-goal deficit and we were unable to get the tying goal.

On why the games this season against Tucson have been high-scoring
They have a very good power play, number one. They play below our goal line, they play a style that allows them to maintain pucks in the offensive zone and they’ve been able to capitalize on it. We have to raise our level in our own zone and be able to negate those opportunities. Up and down against this team, it’s just sometimes the way it is too.

On Ontario’s success in front of the Tucson net on the offensive end
That’s where goals are scored. You want to be able to get pucks there first of all and then get those second opportunities and we had a few of those tonight which is great and we’ll take the positives out of that side of things and look to improve the other parts of our game and move forward.

Ontario returns to action Sunday afternoon in Tucson for a rematch with the Roadrunners at 2 p.m. PST.