REIGN FINAL – Reign 1, Roadrunners 4 – Bjornfot

The Tucson Roadrunners (27-28-6-0) scored three times in the second period on their way to a 4-1 win over the Ontario Reign (30-26-4-1) Tuesday night in the opening contest of a two-game series this week at the Tucson Convention Center.

Cal Petersen kept Ontario in the game with 30 saves, while Tobias Bjornfot scored for the Reign in the second period and TJ Tynan posted his league-leading 71st point with an assist.

BOX SCORE

Petersen highlighted the first period for the Reign with multiple impressive saves that kept the game scoreless in the early going. The veteran netminder stopped the first 11 shots he saw in the contest, while Tucson’s Tyler Parks was also perfect in the opening frame with eight saves.

The scoring started at 3:57 of the second period when Josh Doan netted his first pro goal in his third game with the Roadrunners, using a wrist shot from the mid-slot off a feed by Boko Imama to put Tucson up 1-0.

Ontario evened the game back up at 1-1 midway through the frame when Bjornfot snapped a shot up high over Parks off a pass by Tynan. A second assist on the play was credited to Lias Andersson.

But the Roadrunners went back in front four minutes later, scoring to re-take the lead on an odd man rush. As Tucson brough a 4-on-2 attack into their offensive zone, a centering pass was deflected back to Ronald Knot who made it 2-1 with quick shot at 14:14.

Before the end of the second, Tucson’s Michael Carcone cleaned up a loose rebound at the side of the net to convert a power play chance at 15:38 and the Roadrunners skated into the second intermission with a two-goal lead.

The Reign were unable to get any closer in the third, despite multiple grade-A opportunities on Parks. Ontario mustered 12 total shots on goal in the final period in their quest to get back in the game but came up short.

With Petersen at the bench in exchange for an extra attacker in the final minute, Jean-Sebastien Dea hit the empty net for the final Tucson tally of the evening.

The Roadrunners scored the lone man-advantage goal in the contest during the second period and finished 1-for-2 on the power play while holding Ontario 0-for-2. Parks picked up the win in between the pipes with 27 total saves for Tucson.

Tobias Bjornfot

The Reign wrap up the road trip on Wednesday night with their final matchup of the regular season against the Roadrunners at 6:30 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center.