REIGN FINAL – Reign 0, Roadrunners 2 – Sturm, Dudas

Tucson Roadrunners (21-20-4-0) goaltender Ivan Prosvetov stopped all 23 shots the Ontario Reign (23-17-1-1) put on net to earn his team a 2-0 win on Friday night in the first contest of a two-game weekend series between the clubs at Toyota Arena.

Cal Petersen did all he could to keep the Reign in the game, turning aside 38 shots while allowing just a single goal in a losing effort. Tucson’s Hudson Elynuik scored the lone 5-on-5 goal of the game, while Milos Kelemen added an empty-net strike in the closing minutes.

BOX SCORE

More from head coach Marco Sturm and Aidan Dudas below.

Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the opening period, which saw three consecutive penalties whistled to Ontario skaters. The Reign killed all three man-advantages, but were outshot 14-10 in the scoreless frame.

Elynuik put Tucson ahead with the opening goal of the game at 3:09 of the second, firing a pass from behind the net by Adam Cracknell past Petersen for his fifth goal of the season.

Petersen continued to hold the Reign within a goal for the remainder of the second and most of the third, stopping eight shots in the middle frame and another 16 in the final stanza.

Ontario had two power play looks of their own in the second and two more in the third, including after Prosvetov took a minor delay of game penalty for knocking the goal off its pegs at 14:13. But the Reign were unable to put a shot by the 6-foot-5 netminder, and were held off the scoreboard for the first time this season.

After a timeout by Ontario with just over two minutes remaining, Kelemen scored into an empty net to extend Tucson’s lead.

The Roadrunners held a 40-23 shots-on-goal advantage in the game but were unsuccessful on the power play, going 0-for-5.

Marco Sturm

Aidan Dudas

The two clubs will face each other again in the back half of the weekend series during Ontario’s annual Pink In The Rink Night at Toyota Arena beginning at 6 p.m.