REIGN FINAL – Barracuda 4, Reign 3 (OT) – Hajt, Fagemo

A late goal by Samuel Fagemo forced overtime, but the Ontario Reign (33-10-4-3) ultimately fell to the San Jose Barracuda (18-28-2-0) on Wednesday night at Toyota Arena by a final score of 4-3.

Forward Martin Frk scored his league-leading 31st goal on the power play in the second period, while TJ Tynan added two assists to extend his point streak to 10 games and his AHL leading assist total to 63 helpers.

BOX SCORE

More from Reign Assistant Coach Chris Hajt and Fagemo below –

Neither team posted a goal in the first 20 minutes of the contest, but the action picked up in the second period where the Reign scored twice to take the lead.

First, Brayden Burke netted his sixth goal of the season at 2:30 of the middle frame, executing a precision passing play from Tynan and Frk to put Ontario in front 1-0.

The Barracuda evened things up at 1-1 when Jasper Weatherby scored on the power play at 6:00 of the period, but the Reign went back in front in the final minute of the second on Frk’s strike. The third goal of the period came at 19:09 on a power play blast by Frk at the top of the zone with assists by Tynan and Gabriel Vilardi.

San Jose fought back in the third, scoring twice more on the power play to take their first lead of the evening. Weatherby scored his second of the night just 30 seconds into the period on a redirect in front of the Reign net to tie the game before Lane Pederson put the Barracuda ahead 3-2 at 6:00.

Ontario evened things back up on Fagemo’s 19th goal of the year at 16:42. Forward Rasmus Kupari had a hold of the puck in the offensive end and directed a shot attempt toward the net that was blocked, but Fagemo snatched the rebound before unleashing a quick wrist shot that beat an out of position Alexei Melnichuk glove side for the equalizer.

Sasha Chmelevski beat Reign goaltender Matt Villalta at 1:12 of overtime to win the game for San Jose and secure the first win of the season for the Barracuda over Ontario in five meetings during 2021-22.

San Jose did all of their damage during regulation on the power play, going 3-for-4 on the man-advantage in the game, while Ontario finished 1-for-2. Melnichuk stopped 27 shots in the victory for the Barracuda, while Villalta turned aside 26 on the Ontario side.

Chris Hajt
On team’s late effort to tie the game
Obviously they scored three power play goals, which is tough, but it happened. We found ourselves down and we ended up finding a way to get one in and push it to overtime. That’s the way it is. You want to be able to shut those opportunities down, but also have the belief and ability to come back and tie the game. Obviously it didn’t go our way but we’ll take the point.

On the team’s 4-0-1 record in the homestand
The penalty kill, we have to tighten some things up there. There was a lot of good efforts today and played a great five games in eight nights. They’ll get a day off, then practice again and get right back at it in San Diego. There’s not a lot of time to work on things but we’ll look at the film, talk with the guys, and move forward.

On making multiple third period comebacks in five games
There was positive talk on the bench. You always have to have good leadership and our leaders are leading the way. We got a little bit desperate and were a little harder on pucks, had a little bit more urgency in the offensive zone to get pucks to the net, and the importance of having a shooting mentality, and eventually we kept at it. Sammy had a huge goal there. It’s been multiple games, which is a positive sign. We’re trying to win both ways: coming from behind and with a lead, being able to shut the game down. We’ll look at those things and move forward.

Samuel Fagemo

The Reign are back in action on Saturday night when they travel to San Diego to face the Gulls at Pechanga Arena at 7 p.m. PST.