The Texas Stars (11-7-0-0) got two goals from Arttu Hyry and defeated the Ontario Reign (10-8-0-0) in come-from-behind fashion by a score of 5-3 on Tuesday night at Toyota Arena.
Francesco Pinelli had a goal and an assist in the loss for Ontario, while Samuel Fagemo and Angus Booth also found the back of the net for the home team.
Texas took the initial lead in the opening minute of the game on their first shot on net. Hyry got the puck in the slot and let go a turnaround bid that put the Stars in front 1-0 just 41 seconds in.
Ontario evened the game moments later when Fagemo scored for the fifth consecutive game on the power play at 3:02. Assists on the strike went to both Jeff Malott and Reilly Walsh.
Later in the period, Pinelli put the Reign on top 2-1 by using a quick release off a feed by Taylor Ward at 12:17. Pinelli’s third goal of the campaign had Ontario on top by a goal at the first intermission.
The Stars made it a 2-2 game at 9:32 of the second on a goal by Alex Petrovic, but the Reign went back in front 3-2 a minute later at 10:41 when Booth netted his second of the year from Pinelli and Martin Chromiak. Booth’s shot deflected off a Texas defender’s stick, snapping it in half, on its way to the back of the net.
But before the end of the frame, Hyry got Texas even once again, making it 3-3 at 15:24.
Antonio Stranges put the Stars ahead for good at 5:55 of the third with his seventh goal of the season before Matej Blumel added an insurance marker for the visitors with an empty-net goal at 17:32.
Fagemo’s goal was the lone power play marker of the night, with Ontario finishing 1-for-4 on the man-advantage while holding Texas 0-for-3. The Reign held a 33-22 edge in shots-on-goal, with Magnus Hellberg earning the win for the Stars on 30 saves while Pheonix Copley stopped 17 shots in a losing effort.
Postgame reactions from Pinelli and head coach Marco Sturm are below –
Francesco Pinelli
On being tied going into the 3rd period
I thought going into the third, I don’t think we were as aggressive as we wanted to be. I think that’s where we were really good in previous games. We’re really aggressive. We want to score. We were a little disconnected tonight, so I think that was probably the main issue.
On how he played
I felt pretty good but obviously the result wasn’t what we wanted it to be. So at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
On playing with Taylor Ward
I think he’s a high hockey IQ player and that’s really fun to play with because you can kind of get a feel of where he’s going to go and what he’s going to do with the puck. So it’s easy to make reads off of it. I think we just got to build off of that and be better next game as well.
On moving forward after the loss
It’s good adversity for us to feel these little bit of highs and lows, and then continue to build. See where our weaknesses are and make that our strength.
Marco Sturm
On the difference from Friday
They just wanted it more than us. It started with our first shift. You could see right away. You could see on their body language, the energy they had and we just didn’t compete enough to win the hockey game.
On what went wrong for his team in the game
We just didn’t play our game. I feel like it got away. They wanted it more than us, and you could tell, they won all the battles. We started to cheat a little bit and with a good team like that, it’s not going to work.
On how the game got away from them after they had a lead
No, I think that was just the game we played today, and it didn’t matter if it was special teams or we lost a guy. Not everyone was on the same page today, not everyone was involved. You know, we were still in it though, that’s the thing. That’s the frustrating part. We could have either won a game or get a point out of it but we didn’t deserve it. That’s just the way it is. Again, there were too many mistakes and in every area of the game and they were better.
The Reign travel to San Diego for their next contest to battle the Gulls on Saturday night at 6 p.m. inside Pechanga Arena.
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