After being pulled from Saturday’s game early with five goals allowed in the first period, Henderson Silver Knights (16-13-1-2) goaltender Isaiah Saville returned and got revenge on the Ontario Reign (16-10-3-1) Sunday, stopping 24 shots to record his first shutout of the 2023-24 season in a 3-0 contest at Toyota Arena.
Henderson got goals from Jonas Rondbjerg, Grigori Denisenko and Byron Froese to even the weekend’s back-to-back home and home series. Erik Portillo kept the Reign close the entire way at the other end of the ice, stopping 28 shots in a losing effort.
Before the Silver Knights went ahead, the two teams played a scoreless first period that saw Henderson hold a 13-3 edge in shots on goal. The opening frame had three minor penalties that led to power play opportunities, with the Silver Knights coming up empty on two looks, while Ontario was 0-for-1.
Henderson took control in the opening minute of the second when Rondbjerg scored the first tally of the night 55 seconds into the frame.
Ontario had life in the middle of the period and came inches away from scoring a highlight-reel tally when Samuel Fagemo attempted a lacrosse-style shot from behind the net, but after video review the play was ruled no goal.
The Silver Knights tacked on another strike from Denisenko on a 2-on-1 rush at 14:33 and held their lead with consecutive successful penalty kills to enter the second intermission with a 2-0 advantage on the scoreboard.
Things stayed the same in the third, with Ontario coming close on multiple attempts to beat Saville, but the pucks didn’t bounce their way as they had during Saturday’s 7-1 win in Henderson.
With Portillo at the bench in exchange for an extra attacker in the final minutes of the third, Saville stopped TJ Tynan on the doorstep and then saw Froese throw the puck into the empty net in the Reign end to seal Ontario’s fate.
Neither team was successful on the man-advantage in the contest, with Henderson going 0-for-3 and the Reign finishing 0-for-5.
Marco Sturm
On suffering a vastly different result from last night
I see it over and over now. It’s hard. I think it’s all mental. It was probably going too well yesterday, and today I think most of the guys thought it would be the same way, and it wasn’t. [Henderson] came ready to play. We didn’t. We pushed on the end but it was too late and they deserved to win more than us.
On the team’s power play struggles
The power play for a bit now has not been good. There hasn’t been too much pressure or support. It’s been a while now, not just today, but even for the last few games. That’s something we just have to get back to and probably keep it more simple. At the end of the day, we need more shots too. We can’t have eight shots after 40 minutes every night. That’s just not going to do it. Some nights you will get lucky, but most nights you’re not, so there are a lot of things we have to fix. Now we’re going to have a few days in between [games] to try and do that and start the right way in the new year.
On the lack of practice time between games this week
Probably every AHL team goes through the same thing, but I know for some reason these guys need a refresher. Usually in practice, we try to go through some stuff again, so that’s what we’re going to do next week. We’re going to work hard so that we’re ready to go for next week.
The Reign begin 2024 next weekend with two consecutive home games against the San Jose Barracuda beginning Friday night inside Toyota Arena at 7 p.m.
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