The Ontario Reign (7-4-1-0) defeated the San Diego Gulls (4-4-3-0) Saturday night by a final score of 4-3 in overtime in front of 9,094 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will be in Calgary taking on the Wranglers Tuesday, Nov. 11th at 5 p.m.
Ontario jumped out to a 3-0 lead after Glenn Gawdin scored a pair of goals in the first period then Aatu Jämsen buried early into the second period. The Gulls stormed back with three unanswered of their own including an extra attacker goal with 1:31 left in regulation. Kyle Burroughs called game 1:59 into overtime giving Ontario their second overtime win in their last three games.
The Reign led 2-0 after the opening period on a pair of goals from Glenn Gawdin in a stretch of 3:39. Gawdin’s first of the game was setup by Andre Lee at 8:58 when Lee from the left face-off dot slid the puck to Gawdin in the high slot where he beat Clang with a wrist shot low glove side. Then at 12:37 Gawdin increased the lead to 2-0 from Cole Guttman and Jakub Dvořák. From above the left face-off dot Guttman fed Gawdin in the left corner where he sent a one-timer home beating Clang low short-side. Shots were 10-5 in favor of Ontario.
Ontario led 3-2 through 40 minutes of play with the Gulls holding the advantage in shots 10—6 during the second period. Aatu Jämsen stretched the lead to 3-0 at 6:47 from Koehn Ziemmer and Jack Hughes. From below the left hash marks with two Gulls players on him Ziemmer sent a backhand pass to Jämsen inside the left face-off dot where he played the puck off his skate to his stick and fired a wrist shot over the glove of Clang. Just 64 seconds later Jan Myšák got the Gulls on the board cutting the deficit down to a pair with a deflection at the top of the crease on a shot from Sasha Pastujov at the top of the left circle. Noah Warren pulled the Gulls within one at 13:48 with a low shot from a top of the high slot. Ville Husso took over in relief for Calle Clang 8:36 into the second stanza.
Midway through the third period the Ontario penalty-kill came up big killing off a minute of five-on-three deficit. The Gulls pulled Husso for an extra attacker in the late stages of the contest and it would be Tim Washe forcing overtime as he scored seconds after an offensive zone face-off win with 1:31 left in the contest.
Kyle Burroughs called game 1:59 into overtime from Guttman and Joe Hicketts for the 4-3 victory. Guttman darted into the offensive zone down the right wing and cut to the high slot. From there he fed Burroughs who came streaking in from off the bench. He got to the inside hash marks and fired a shot bar down and in.
Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord, Kyle Burroughs, and Glenn Gawdin.
Lord
On tonight’s win
It feels good to pull it out for sure. First period was solid, and then I think we took our foot off the gas. They really got their D involved. They were effective. Portillo was solid. Our PK was really good. Just really feel good about the resiliency an winning in OT was great.
On tonight’s PK
Yeah, it was great. Obviously, the character within the group. We have a lot of good PK guys with really good structure, with Hajt running that. And, you know, a couple good blocked shots. I thought it changed the momentum a little bit. Obviously, they scored late to tie it up, but we did have a few good minutes after that.
Burroughs
On scoring the OT winner
Yeah, it’s been a while. So it feels nice anytime you get to win a game like that. It’s fun.
On the team’s character
It’s a resilient group. We bend but we don’t break. Obviously there’s things that we can clean up, you know, obviously giving up the three goal lead. But push comes to shove, we’re going to show up. We’re going to be in the trenches for each other. And, you know, we had to scratch and claw for that one.
Gawdin
On it being Hockey Fights Cancer Night
It’s unbelievable. I think it touches everybody on a game like tonight. So I think everybody had a little bit more gas in the tank. I think we were all playing for somebody tonight.
On scoring two goals tonight
It feels good of course. I think that’s a part of my game that I can bring to the team, and that’s been a bit of a slow start. So when that happens, you try to focus on the little details, and eventually you’ll get rewarded. I think it’s just sticking with it and playing with my linemates. I think they did most of the work on those goals. It’s nice to see them go in.
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