Despite taking a 2-0 lead in the first period, the Ontario Reign (21-13-3-1) weren’t able to hold on, surrendering four straight goals in a 4-2 loss to the Coachella Valley Firebirds (22-12-3-1) at Toyota Arena on Saturday night.
Tyler Madden and Jacob Moverare found the back of the net for the Reign in a losing effort, while goaltender Erik Portillo made the start in between the pipes and finished with 22 saves.
Madden got the home team on top early, scoring his eighth of the season on the power play just 2:06 into the first period after a tripping penalty was whistled to Coachella Valley’s Gustav Olofsson 31 seconds into the contest. Hayden Hodgson provided a screen in front of the net that shielded goaltender Cale Morris and picked up an assist on the play, while Martin Chromiak got the puck to Madden and earned the primary helper.
Four minutes later, Moverare made it 2-0 with his first goal of the season in his 27th AHL appearance. The defender drove to the net and knocked home a rebound off an initial shot by Charles Hudon at 6:19. Reign captain TJ Tynan recorded the second assist on the goal for his team-leading 27th helper of the season.
Before the end of the opening frame, Cameron Hughes got one back for the Firebirds at 13:49 and cut into Ontario’s lead with a wrist shot to the top left corner of the net on a rush into the Reign zone.
Then Firebirds’ captain Max McCormack evened things up at 2-2 with the tying goal 56 seconds into the second period.
Coachella Valley went in front for the first time while on the power play at 3:53 of the third when Shane Wright set up on the inside of the right circle and fired a shot by Portillo to make it a 3-2 game.
Ontario had multiple opportunities to tie the contest after Wright’s tally but saw grade-A bids by both Akil Thomas and Kevin Connauton miss the mark and hit the post.
With Portillo at the bench for an extra attacker in the closing moments, Kole Lind tacked on an empty-net strike for the Firebirds as an insurance goal with 32 seconds remaining.
Morris earned the win in comeback fashion for Coachella Valley by turning out a total of 27 shots. Both teams had a single power play tally in the game with Ontario finishing 1-for-3 on the man-advantage while the Firebirds ended at 1-for-4.
Marco Sturm
On the team’s late push and the game as a whole
We wanted a goal, but overall it was a good game for us right from the start. I thought we were good enough to win a hockey game today and probably didn’t have the right bounces at the end. Our special teams needed to be better. I thought that was the difference, and at five-on-five, I actually didn’t mind our play.
On Alex Turcotte and the second line
Every line did something good today. Turc and those guys have to take care of [Coachella Valley’s] top line too, so they have a job to do. Ward was moving today and Madden had a good game, so I give them credit. It was probably one of our better games with having everyone involved, and unfortunately we’re on the short end. That’s the disappointing part.
On managing the team’s workload after the long road trip
We already started to have better shift length in Abbotsford, and that kind of carried over to today. It was much better and we tried to get everyone involved. With the travel day, there’s been a lot of short days, and a lot of games, and short times, so we need everyone. The guys did a really god job. It was the first time for a lot of those guys being on the road that long and experiencing a travel day and coming back home. The guys came out on fire so it was nice to see.
On Jacob Moverare impact before leaving injured
He’s hurt. He tried it again but he couldn’t do it. We’ll have to see how it goes tomorrow. I’m not too optimistic, but he’s such an important part of our team on and off the ice, so hopefully he will be okay.
Tyler Madden
On tonight’s loss
We had a couple unlucky bounces here and there. I thought we outworked them. I think in the o-zone, we had some great chances, we’ve just got to finish on them. We were just a little unlucky and cant let games like that get away from us.
On scoring a power play goal with the second unit
We talked about it before the game and we wanted to get shots on the power play, so Chromie made a nice play to me on the wall there and I kind of just went to the net. Hodgson did a great job screening and I don’t think [the goalie] saw it. Just getting pucks to the net was the game plan and that’s what we did. The first power play unit has some really good shooters, and we try to get pucks to the net and get guys there [on the second unit]. When we get out there, sometimes we only have 30 seconds, so we like to get our chances in when we can.
On playing on a line with Turcotte and Ward
When Turc came back, I was just hoping I’d get to play with him. Last year we had some good looks and obviously Ward’s a great player too, and when you put us together we can create some things and feed off each other.
Ontario returns to the Toyota Arena ice on Sunday afternoon to battle the Bakersfield Condors at 3 p.m.
Rules for Blog Commenting
Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.
Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.