REIGN FINAL – Reign 4, Roadrunners 5 (OT) – Thomas, Lee, Lord

The Ontario Reign (0-0-1-0) fell in overtime to the Tucson Roadunners (1-0-0-0) Friday night by a final score of 5-4 at Toyota Arena in front of 6,391 to open the 2025-26 AHL regular season. The Reign will host the Roadrunners on Sunday, Oct. 12^th at 3 p.m. PST.

Akil Thomas and Francesco Pinelli each tallied a goal and assist in the overtime loss. Thomas’s goal with 4:27 in the third period put Ontario on top 4-3 but Tucson tied the score with a 6-on-4 strike with just 22 seconds left in regulation before winning the game 51 seconds into the extra session. Andre Lee and Aatu Jämsen also found the back of the net.

BOX SCORE

Ontario led 2-1 after the first period. Ben McCartney gave the Roadrunners the early advantage beating Portillo over the right shoulder with a one-timer inside the left face-off dot. Andre Lee (1^st) provided the equalizer at 6:21 from Akil Thomas. Right out of the media timeout Thomas won an offensive zone face-off directly back for Lee at the top of the left circle. From there he let a quick shot go into the top left corner making it 1-1. Just seconds after the score Jacob Doty dropped the gloves with Montana Onyebuchi. Then 2:21 later Francesco Pinelli (1^st) gave the Reign their first lead of the night on a two-on-one where he fired a shot through the legs of Villata from the right face-off dot. Shots were 6-5 Reign as each team went 0-for-1 on the power-play.

The Reign held a 3-2 advantage through 40 minutes of play. Sammy Walker tied the game at 2-2 with a power-play goal for the Roadrunners at 5:59 where he swept the puck through the five-hole of Portillo from inside the right circle. With 22 seconds left in the stanza Aatu Jämsen struck on the power-play from Portillo giving the Reign a one-goal lead. From the top of the crease Portillo fed Jämsen down the right wing. He got inside the right face-off dot and tried to feed Lee racing towards the net. The puck was deflected by a Tucson defender’s stick then off the pad of Villalta eventually finding Jämsen on the right side of the crease sliding it past Villalta. Shots were 11-6 Roadrunners in the frame while Tucson went 1-for-1 on the power-play and Ontario 1-for-2.

Owen Allard tied the score for Tucson just 2:09 into the third period on a funky deflection through the high slot after a point shot from Kevin Connauton. With 4:27 remaining in regulation Akil Thomas put the Reign back out in front with a highlight reel goal from Pinelli making it 4-3. Thomas raced into the offensive zone down the left wing and cut to the middle pulling a couple of stick handles off at the top of the crease. He got just behind the right post and tucked the puck past the left leg of Villalta. After a penalty assessed to Ontario at 18:33 the Roadrunners pulled their netminder making it a 6-on-4 advantage as Kevin Rooney tied the score at 4-4 with just 22 seconds to play beating Portillo through the five-hole from the right side of the goal line.

Sammy Walker called game 51 seconds into the overtime session sending a wrist shot banging home a rebound on the doorstep giving Tucson a 5-4 overtime win after Portillo made the initial save.

Erik Portillo made 22 saves on 27 shots in the overtime loss while Matt Villalta turned made 14 saves on 18 shots in the overtime win.

Postgame reactions from Andre Lee, Akil Thomas and head coach Andrew Lord are below –

Andre Lee

Akil Thomas
On adjusting back to the Reign after spending last season with the Kings
Obviously, a lot of new faces, still trying to get to know everyone. It’s fun to be back here. Played here a lot, and obviously it’s a different league. So it’s a lot to adjust to. I had a tough time at the beginning, just because of the speed, the plays and playing more. So it was kind of an adjustment, for sure. But obviously got it going.

On his highlight reel goal
Honestly, the whole time, I didn’t even know what I was doing, to be honest. I saw the guy changing, which I thought was kind of bizarre because I was just skating down with the puck. I figured that the D was going to have that gap, so that’s why I kind of faked the shot, and I honestly didn’t have a plan after. I ended up behind the net and then I figured I’d stick it home.

On playing with his line
I thought we had some chemistry. Obviously, some stuff we can clean up, but I think we’re going to get a lot of opportunity and just kind of play the right way. Hopefully be a line that Lordo can kind of just depend on, night in and night out. Hopefully contribute a lot to the team.

Andrew Lord
On tonight’s loss
I think we started slow in the first. I liked the rest of our first. Obviously, Andre’s goal with the fight from Dotes was a huge kind of moment there early on to get us going. I thought the second was pretty sloppy. The third a lot better. Obviously, great to have the lead there late. Really unfortunate to take the penalty, miss the empty net, and give up the shorthanded goal there obviously on the PK late. So it stings, but we’ll be better for it Sunday.

On the new Reign players
I thought Connors was really good late. He got some pucks out. Kept it simple for us. We gave him a little bit more ice in the third as a result. Wright was obviously moving his feet. He was fine as well. I just thought collectively, as a team, we didn’t play as a team overall. You know, we weren’t putting pucks to places where we could play fast and use our identity, especially with what we have up front.

On his message to the room after the game
You know, stick together. Obviously, we need to be better Sunday. Play a full 60. But we’re four days into being a group here. So, you know, we’re still learning chemistry, systems, all those things. I’m hopeful and excited for Sunday.

On his first game being head coach of the Reign
I’ve been here a bunch. I’ve seen it a lot. I was just really excited to be with our group. You know I like this team a lot, I like our staff a lot. It was just a fun night overall, until the end.