REIGN FINAL – Reign 0, Roadrunners 3 – Copley, Sturm

The Tucson Roadrunners (30-27-3-2) got 24 saves from goaltender Matt Villalta and held off the Ontario Reign (36-22-3-1) offense, earning a 3-0 win at Toyota Arena on Wednesday.

Pheonix Copley kept the Reign in the game the whole way, making 24 saves on 25 shots before the Roadrunners added a pair of empty-net goals in the final minutes.

BOX SCORE

The two clubs held each other off the scoreboard in the first, with Tucson earning a 9-7 shots on net advantage. Ontario had two power play opportunities in the opening frame when Maveric Lamoureux went off for holding and Hunter Drew took a double-minor for high-sticking.

Montana Onyebuchi put the Roadrunners ahead 1-0 at 8:16 of the second, netting a goal on a loose rebound in the Ontario zone.

Seconds after Onyebuchi scored, he dropped the gloves with Reign forward Jacob Doty at 8:22 and each received five minutes for fighting.

Ontario had 11 shots in the second and six in the third but were unable to solve Villalta on any of their late bids.

With Copley at the bench in exchange for an extra attacker late in the game, Tucson added empty-net goals from Andrew Agozzino at 16:54 and Travis Barron at 19:58.

Neither team was able to take advantage on the power play in the contest, with the Roadrunners going 0-for-4 and the Reign ending at 0-for-6.

Postgame reactions from Copley and head coach Marco Sturm are below –

Pheonix Copley
On keeping his head in the game
Just trying to stay focused and do my job. I can’t really control when the shots are going to come, not getting action, just trying to stay focused and be ready.

On tonight’s energy
I think ultimately as a whole, the game was kind of disappointing for us, energy-wise. I think all of us just didn’t have the energy we needed. So we’ll just have to regroup and get ready for some games this weekend. Ultimately, I just don’t think we had enough energy tonight.

On playing after the road trip
I just try and prepare the same every night. Regardless of what happens, I can’t control the game that’s going to happen in front of me. So whatever that’s going to be, I try and prepare my best to give the team a chance to win.

On playing a lot of games
Obviously, as a goalie, you want to play every night. Sometimes you’re playing less than you want and sometimes you’re playing like it’s a playoff game. It’s been great. I feel really good. Obviously it’s tough not winning, that’s always as tough. But I feel good, I’m happy to play a lot.

Marco Sturm
On tonight’s loss
We knew it wouldn’t be easy, especially after a road trip like that. Again, that’s something that we talked about. Probably more the details in our game, you know, the jump in our game was just not there. At the end of the day, I think we were not willing to play a grinding game, like they did. I think that was the difference.

On tonight’s special teams
I think it was just us. What I said about the details, I think special teams especially, even the PK, we were not sharp today. Power Play was not sharp today. Those were big moments to maybe give us a little bit of life. I thought Doty did a tremendous job, like always, to give us a lot of energy but we needed more than just him. I think special teams, those are the moments, and they had to be better.

On the play of Pheonix Copley
He was solid, like always. We didn’t get into too much trouble. Only our mistakes, especially on breakouts and on the PK. Other than that, they didn’t have much. But again, it was just us. They didn’t change anything. It was more us. Guys got frustrated because they couldn’t get anything going. It’s those little details that matter. We made one big mistake on the goal against and all of a sudden we’re behind. Then we were chasing that one mistake the whole game. That’s how tight it is. That’s something we have to get better at.

The Reign will return home to Ontario for three games this week, beginning on Wednesday night when they host the Tucson Roadrunners at Toyota Arena at 7 p.m.