REIGN FINAL – Reign 5, Roadrunners 1 – Hajt

The Ontario Reign (29-10-3-3) gave goaltender John Lethemon plenty of support in his first AHL start, scoring five times to help him earn a 5-1 victory on the road over the Tucson Roadrunners (17-24-2-1) Sunday afternoon at the Tucson Convention Center. Lethemon stopped 27 shots in the contest, while forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored twice in a span of 1:42 in the second period and Martin Frk netted a goal and an assist to reach a new career-high in scoring.

Forwards Austin Wagner and Samuel Fagemo also scored in the victory for the Reign, while defender Cameron Gaunce picked up two assists. Ontario continues to hold second place in the Pacific Division after 45 games with a total of 64 points and a 0.711 points percentage.

BOX SCORE

More from Reign Assistant Coach Chris Hajt below –

Tucson netted the lone goal of the opening period when Matias Maccelli beat Lethemon on the power play at 11:28 to give the home team a 1-0 advantage.

But Ontario owned the second period, scoring four times on 12 shots to take over the game. Frk got things going with his 27th goal of the season just 45 seconds into the middle frame, blasting a one-time feed from TJ Tynan by goaltender Ivan Prosvetov to even the game at 1-1. Gaunce got the play started by helping to win a battle on the wall in the defensive zone and recorded the second assist.

After a penalty to Christian Wolanin 14 seconds later put the Reign down a man, Wagner got control of the puck and was off to the races, out-skating everyone before beating Prosvetov with a quick wrist shot for his 11th goal of the season to make it 2-1. Wagner’s first shorthanded marker of the year came at 2:44 of the second with assists to captain Brett Sutter and defender Helge Grans.

Later in the frame, Frk was assessed a major penalty for interference after a collision with Prosvetov behind the net. The Ontario penalty kill was able to kill off the infraction and the puck found Frk just as he was leaving the penalty box. He collected it in stride and then found Anderson-Dolan for an open opportunity in the slot, which he converted to extend the lead to 3-1.

Anderson-Dolan wasn’t done however and scored again on a deflection in front of the net just 1:42 later to add on and make it a 4-1 game. The strike came off an offensive zone faceoff win that saw Gaunce fire a shot to the net which Anderson-Dolan deflected home. The Calgary, Alberta native now has 21 goals on the season and finished the month of February with points in nine straight road games, during which he totaled seven goals and four assists.

Fagemo capped off the scoring with his second goal in as many days at 1:14 of the third period. The Goteborg, Sweden native’s 17th tally of the season came after he and Gabriel Vilardi, who recorded the lone assist on the play, were able to use heavy forechecking pressure to create a turnover in the offensive zone. Vilardi then fed Fagemo who used a quick release to find the back of the net.

The Roadrunners’ lone tally was the only power play goal in the contest, which saw Ontario successfully kill two five-minute major penalties without allowing a goal on either. Tucson finished 1-for-7, while the Reign ended the game at 0-for-4 on the man-advantage. Prosvetov, who earned a win in the series opener on Saturday, stopped 19 shots in a losing effort.

Chris Hajt
On how his team responded to a loss Saturday with a better effort
The start of the second period, to start out the way we did with a goal was important. It created a little momentum and then the penalty kill was able to build on that momentum with a shorthanded goal and we put ourselves in a situation where we had to kill a five-minute penalty and at the end of that we were able to get a goal. An excellent job by the penalty killers and of course the goaltender. I’m happy for Lethemon, getting his first win and guys play hard for him and we’re happy for him to get his win. It’s awesome.

On some of the keys to his penalty kill’s performance
There was a lot of guys that were being used with it. They were smart and aggressive when they needed to be against an excellent power play. Obviously they scored one in the first period and the guys just beared down a little bit, had a little better detail on things like faceoffs and clearing second opportunities from in front of our net which Tucson is really good at those retrievals around the net and we were able to kill with multiple players and ultimately had some desperation and pride within it. Momentum was important and we were to have some plays that we made to gain some momentum for our team and we were able to respond after losing last night which we were happy with.

On the play of John Lethemon, winning in his first AHL start
He’s a professional. He comes to work every day and is a really likeable guy. We’re all really happy for him, coming in and playing such a solid game. Tucson puts a lot of pucks at the net, a lot of plays around the net and he handled that traffic and that motion in front of him very well and looked calm and gave us a real good effort today so good for him.

While their time in Tucson has come to an end, the Reign and Roadrunners are set to square again off for their third straight meeting on Wednesday night in Ontario at Toyota Arena. The teams’ eighth and final scheduled matchup during the 2021-22 regular season will begin at 7 p.m. PST.