Two late goals from Samuel Fagemo weren’t enough to complete a third period comeback on Saturday night in Arizona, as the Ontario Reign (23-19-3-2) fell to the Tucson Roadrunners (29-15-2-1) by a final score of 3-2 at the Tucson Convention Center.
Ontario’s league-leading road penalty kill conceded goals on two of Tucson’s first three power play opportunities. Josh Doan’s three-point night (1-2=3) helped lead the Roadrunners to a bounce-back victory.
Hayden Hodgson took a cross-checking penalty within six minutes to send Tucson to an early power play. Despite turning away a handful of chances during the advantage, the Reign never cleared the puck out of their own zone. Finally, John Leonard fired a wrist shot past Aaron Dell to open the scoring. It was just the eighth power play goal allowed by Ontario away from home this season.
The Reign went on to take two more penalties before the end of the first period. The final penalty, a tripping call to Samuel Fagemo, carried over to the second period and led to a Josh Doan power play goal. It was Doan’s team-leading 21st goal of the season and his third straight game scoring against the Reign.
Ontario recorded 13 shots on goal in the second period, which was an increase on their first period total of 10, but failed to create many legitimate scoring chances. Their lone power play opportunity of the period didn’t result in many real chances, and the only Grade-A scoring chance came on a 2-on-0 shorthanded rush for the Roadrunners, which Reign goaltender Aaron Dell turned away terrifically.
The Roadrunners eventually broke through a third time on a goal from Nathan Smith, who slipped between the circles and one-timed the puck from the slot.
Tempers flared at the end of the second period as Jacob Doty and Tucson’s Cameron Crotty latched onto each other after the buzzer. Roadrunner forward Milos Kelemen had words for Kevin Connauton after the fray and needed to be escorted back to the tunnel. Doty received a roughing minor and Kelemen was issued a misconduct penalty for continuing the altercation.
The Reign came out firing to start the third period and began to generate some good scoring chances. Late in the period, the Roadrunners took consecutive minor penalties to give the Reign a two-man advantage.
Fagemo fired the Reign onto the scoreboard just seconds into the 5-on-3 power play. He one-timed a Joe Hicketts pass from the left circle for his 22nd goal of the season. Moments later, Fagemo blasted another power play goal from the same location to cut the Tucson lead to one. Both goals were assisted by Hicketts and Charles Hudon.
Ontario swarmed in the offensive in the final seconds but was unable to even the score.
Below are postgame thoughts from Reign head coach Marco Sturm.
Marco Sturm
On tonight’s loss
It was pretty much a repeat of what we had here a few weeks ago. We had a good first night and then on the second night we had trouble scoring goals. It took us a long, long time to get the first one, and that’s exactly what happened again today. Unfortunately, we came up short again. I thought we had some opportunities. We missed the net a lot and also the goalie was playing really well today. It was a little bit of a combination but its just very disappointing the way we approached the game today.
On tonight’s first period compared to last night’s
I didn’t like how we came out. Like I said, it took us a long time. We just got away from our game a little bit, and [Tucson] stuck with theirs. We wanted to be more consistent and we were not today. At the end of the day, for me, that’s the disappointing part. We all knew it was not going to be easy and we knew they’d come out hard and we didn’t fight against it properly. That’s why we lost.
On the team’s recent comebacks that have fallen short
It’s good and bad. The good thing is, yes, we’re finding ways to come back, but we never end up winning them. Why are we in those situations? That’s something that’s on us. If you don’t take care of it, we’re going to be in this situation all season long. I’m not a big fan of it. I want to win too and I want to be more consistent. You just can’t win like that. That’s the bottom line. Yeah, it always feels a little bit better when you come back, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to put in a 60-minute effort and be very consistent like we did yesterday. Then, you can give yourself a chance to win.
On the quick turnaround to a busy week back in SoCal
I think overall we had a good weekend. Unfortunately, we fell short today but we did a lot of good things. That’s something we have to take with us for the next few days in practice and carry over to the next game. It’s more the buy-in and the consistent part that has to be from everyone. That’s going to be the goal for the rest of the season.
On Joe Hicketts’ first two games back in the lineup
It’s good to have him back. Yesterday in his first game, everything went well. Today, I thought he struggled but more because he was tired. He missed a lot of time and it’s not easy to come back and also play back-to-back games. He found his game a little bit better at the end. Again, I was happy and we’re all happy he’s back. He’s a big part of our game and I’m just going to look forward to having him on a regular basis.
The Reign return home for a 7 p.m. showdown with the Abbotsford Canucks on Wednesday Night at Toyota Arena.
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