3/3 REIGN FINAL – Reign 2, Canucks 1 – Sturm, Pinelli, Rowe

Luke Rowe’s first AHL goal came at the perfect time for the Ontario Reign (28-19-3-3), who used two third period tallies to come from behind and defeat the Abbotsford Canucks (28-19-4-2) by a 2-1 score Sunday night at Toyota Arena.

Rowe’s strike came with 2:25 remaining in the third period to win the game for Ontario in his second professional contest, while the Reign’s first goal came off the stick of Francesco Pinelli midway through the final period to pull the team even.

BOX SCORE

Both goals had assists by forward Hayden Hodgson and defender Joe Hicketts, while goaltender Erik Portillo made the start in net and stopped 17 shots to earn the victory.

Hicketts has earned assists in seven straight games, which is tied for the longest active assist streak in the AHL. He’s also posted points in all seven games he’s played this season at Toyota Arena and 15 points overall in just 13 contests this year.

Portillo won for the third consecutive outing and has now allowed two goals or less in five straight starts to lower his goals-against average to 2.38 and strengthen his season save percentage to 0.923.

After a scoreless first period that saw Ontario outshoot the Canucks 11-5, Abbotsford took the lead at 11:38 of the second when Sheldon Dries converted on a shorthanded breakaway to make it 1-0.

The Reign kept battling and dictating play, tossing another nine shots on goal during the second. After 40 minutes, Ontario had doubled up Abbotsford on the shot board, 20-10.

Pinelli finally broke through in the third, tying the game up at 1-1 off an offensive zone faceoff win by wristing a rebound inside the left post. Hicketts took the initial shot that was stopped by Canucks’ goaltender Arturs Silovs, while Hodgson picked up the second helper on the play.

Rowe’s winner came at 17:35 on a shot that he let go from the red line. The rookie defender watched it sneak past Silovs and celebrated his first career goal with his teammates near the Ontario bench.

Neither team was able to capitalize on a man-advantage opportunity in the game, each finishing 0-for-2. Silovs kept the Reign off the scoreboard until late and stopped a total of 33 shots in the game, while Ontario outshot the Canucks 35-18.

Postgame thoughts from Reign head coach Marco Sturm as well as Pinelli and Rowe are below.

Marco Sturm
On tonight’s win
I think overall we deserved the win. They were hanging in there. Their goalie played really well, but we were the better team and unfortunately couldn’t finish today. We knew it was going to be an ugly one to tie it up. It was just one of those goals, and the second one too. We’ll take that and we’ll take the win and learn from it.

On tonight’s special teams and five-on-five play
[Special teams] almost cost us a game today, so I’m not too happy about that. For awhile now we’ve talked about playoff hockey, and in playoff hockey there’s not much room for error. There will be times where it’s a 1-0 game and you have to push and push to the last second, so that was good to see [tonight]. It’s been a few games already where we came back in the third period and won a hockey game. We want to prepare. We want to play well down the stretch and those are the wins you need.

On Francesco Pinelli’s improvements throughout the season
I don’t know what he was thinking [early on] but this is a tough league. The AHL is a tough league even for a really good OHL player like him. There was a lot he had to learn and now I feel like he’s found a role in the fourth line at the center spot, and he’s been really solid the last few weeks. It hasn’t mattered who he’s played with. He plays his game and that’s all we need from him. He competes hard and tonight he gets rewarded. [His confidence] is still climbing. Sometimes there’s some little downs but he recovers better. I think that’s what it was in the past. His downs lasted two, three or four weeks. He didn’t recover for that long and now all of a sudden he recovers after a few shifts. He wants to be the difference and those kinds of goals give him the confidence that he can be one.

On Luke Rowe’s first two games and his first professional goal tonight
I mentioned last game that we didn’t know what to expect. He’s way better than we thought and it has nothing to do with the goal today. It’s just the way he prepares and the way he plays hard. Everything is 100% and that’s all I’m asking for. If some players are not good enough, that’s okay. This guy gives you the effort and he knows what to expect every game and every shift. He’s the kind of guy that’s going to be angry about having a day off tomorrow. This guy wants to work and I’m very happy with the way he plays. He also plays with Joe Hicketts. Those two have been a solid pair.

Francesco Pinelli
On tonight’s win over a rival in the playoff race
We definitely want to provide for our fans who come out and support us. We want to play our game and be consistent. It’s playoff hockey at this point, so we’re trying to get as many wins as we can.

On his new role with Jacob Doty and Hayden Hodgson
I’m playing with Dotes and Hodgy right now, two very heavy bodies that compete and are really physical, so playing with them is really fun. We’ve just got to play our role and hopefully we’ll be successful with that.

On his confidence level down the stretch
I’ve been feeling a lot better the past month or two. I’m just trying to grow my game, find it, and then just compete and play hard. I’ll do whatever I can to help the team win. At the end of the day, its about wins so we’ll try to continue it and grow as a team.

On the team’s great defensive play during the win streak
I think we just dialed in more on our systems and our positional play. Obviously, that’s been working out for us and we’re going to continue to do that to get wins, because it’s been good.

Luke Rowe

 

Ontario and Abbotsford will face off again on Wednesday night at Toyota Arena beginning at 7 p.m.