The Colorado Eagles (22-12-3-2) jumped out to a lead by scoring three times during the second period and controlled the rest of the game on Wednesday night at Toyota Arena, defeating the Ontario Reign (24-15-1-1) by a 4-2 score.
Jack Studnicka had a goal and an assist for Ontario in a losing effort, while Taylor Ward was on the scoresheet for the fourth time in the past five games with an assist and Martin Chromiak found the back of the net for his seventh strike of the season.
Studnicka had the Reign off and running with a 1-0 lead just 26 seconds into the contest, scoring his 11th goal of the year off a feed from Ward with a quick shot that got past Colorado netminder Trent Minor.
Jacob MacDonald evened up the game for the Eagles at 12:43 of the opening period, putting home a loose rebound in front of the Reign net to make it 1-1.
Colorado then surged forward in the second half of the middle frame, scoring three times to enter the third with a 4-1 advantage. Jake Wise made it a 2-1 game with a goal on a breakaway opportunity at 11:48, before Calle Rosen scored during a delayed penalty at 16:20 and Nikita Prishchepov buried a shorthanded marker in the final minute at 19:28.
Ontario was only able to get one goal closer in the third, when Chromiak deflected home a shot by Studnicka in the final minute of play at 19:43. The goal came on the power play and had a second assist credited to Caleb Jones.
Chromiak’s late strike was the lone power play tally of the contest for either club, with the Reign going 1-for-2 on the man-advantage while holding Colorado to a 0-for-2 mark.
Miner came away with the victory by stopping 24 shots for the Eagles, while Erik Portillo made the start and suffered the loss for Ontario with 21 stops. The Reign had a 26-25 edge in shots on goal during play.
Postgame reactions from Ward and head coach Marco Sturm are below –
Taylor Ward
On the difference in tonight’s loss
I’m not exactly sure. I just don’t think that we were 100% there. I mean that first 30 seconds was good, but after that, I thought that they carried the play. Especially in the second, we weren’t good enough. So we’ll dissect that, try to figure out where our key issues were and move on.
On Studnicka’s goal and compete
It happened so fast, but I was coming down that side and Studs is so fast that I’m always kind of looking for him when we enter the ozone. He beat his guy to the net and it was an easy play. It’s fun playing with him, because he’s so fast, he gets up there so quick, and he wants to puck. He’s an emotional guy. You love having that kind of guy on your team, especially on your line. He’s emotionally involved in the game, which is what you want. He’s been going good, and I think we’ve been, for the most part, going pretty good as a line, with the exception of tonight. But that happens and we’ll move on and get ready for Friday.
On playing against TJ Tynan
It’s weird. He’s a great guy, a great friend of mine. It was cool playing out there against him. Well, it was cool being out there, but it’s not very much fun when he’s flying around the ozone. I got a little bit of a taste of the medicine that he’s been giving other teams in our league for the last few years when he played here. Wish I could have shut him down a little bit more, but next time.
Marco Sturm
On his team’s play in the loss
It was a tough night, for sure. If you’re not engaged in the game, you can’t win the hockey game. I think everyone was involved today and there was just no life. There was no energy. The compete level was not there. Like I said, if you’re not engaged, it’s going to be hard to win.
On when the Reign stopped playing their game
I think it started probably after 15 minutes in the first period. We had some turnovers, we didn’t stick to our game, and it kind of carried over in a second period. We beat ourselves. The whole bench and everything else, it was just not us today. I always think those are big points, especially to leave at home against a good opponent. They’re right with us. So that part kind of hurts.
On what went wrong overall
They all want to be pro, right? Part of being a pro is showing up every night. It doesn’t matter if it’s practice or a game. That’s part of the program, part of something you signed up and wanted to do. Taking a night off, it’s just not going to do. There’s going to be changes next game and it’s something we have to learn from. A lot of individuals today have to learn that too. There’s no pointing fingers. It’s on all of us today. It was just very disappointing.
Ontario will hit the road for a trip to Tucson this weekend, where they’ll face-off with the Roadrunners on consecutive days beginning Friday at 6 p.m. PT.
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