4/20 REIGN FINAL – Reign 7, Eagles 3 – Sturm, Turcotte, Bednard

Alex Turcotte scored a hat trick and six Ontario Reign (42-22-3-4) players recorded multi-point nights in a 7-3 win over the Colorado Eagles (39-25-5-2) on Saturday night at Blue Arena. Taylor Ward also found the back of the net twice, while goaltender Ryan Bednard made 24 saves to pick up a victory in his first career start for Ontario.

Combined with an overtime loss by Tucson to San Jose, the Reign are currently in third in the Pacific Division standings with one game remaining, trailing the Roadrunners by one point. Ontario is still able to finish in second place with a win of any kind on Sunday.

BOX SCORE

Brandt Clarke, TJ Tynan and Akil Thomas all posted two assists in the winning result for Ontario, while Samuel Fagemo had a goal and an assist.

The Reign took advantage of three Colorado penalties and tied a road season-high for most shots on net during a single period in the first, putting 17 opportunities on Colorado’s goal. That allowed them to race out to a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes with a 17-6 shots-on-goal edge.

Turcotte got on the board first 3:49 into the game, scoring his first of the night on the power play. After a one-timer by Fagemo was stopped, Turcotte, who was camped out in front, banged in the rebound to make it 1-0. Clarke factored into the goal by earning the second assist, his first helper of the night.

Fagemo added to the early lead with an even-strength goal at 5:15, his 43rd tally of the season. Ontario’s leading goal scorer fired a one-timer past goaltender Jacob Barczewski from a sharp angle off a feed by Tynan to put the Reign ahead 2-0. Just as he did on the opening goal, Clarke added the second assist on the play.

Later in the frame at 16:35, Turcotte scored his second power play goal of the period by redirecting in a feed from Thomas at the side of the net. Tynan picked up the secondary helper on the strike that made it 3-0, his second assist of the first.

Ward extended Ontario’s advantage to 4-0 with the lone goal of the second unassisted at 8:36. The second-year attacker let a shot go from in between the circles that beat Barczewski and had assists credited to Clarke and Bednard.

3:50 into the third, Ward netted his second of the game with a low shot off the rush. Assists on the strike that made it a 5-0 game went to both of his linemates Thomas and Tyler Madden.

Less than four minutes later, Turcotte completed his second career hat trick to extend the lead to 6-0 for Ontario. A long stretch pass from Joe Hicketts found Turcotte’s stick at the offensive blue line and the forward wristed the puck to the top left corner of the net for his third tally of the evening.

The Eagles got on the board to break up Bedard’s clean slate with a pair of goals at 10:13 and 15:19 of the third, cutting the Reign lead down to 6-2.

Prior to Colorado’s second goal, the Eagles made a goaltending change, bringing on Dante Giannuzzi, who signed a tryout agreement with the team earlier in the day.

Ontario’s final goal came from Nikita Pavlychev at 18:39 of the final period, scoring from in front of the net with assists credited to both Samuel Helenius and Andre Lee.

A final tally for Colorado was scored by Cedric Pare at 19:14 of the third.

The Reign outshot Colorado by a 37-27 margin in the contest and finished 4-for-5 on the power play while the Eagles were 1-for-2 on the man-advantage. Barczewski stopped 26 shots in 51:51 of action, while Giannuzzi turned out four shots in the last 7:49.

Postgame thoughts from Reign head coach Marco Sturm, Turcotte and Bednard are below.

Marco Sturm

Alex Turcotte

Ryan Bednard

The Reign play Game 72 of the 2023-24 regular season on Sunday against Colorado at Blue Arena beginning at 2:05 p.m. PT