Storyline: The Ontario Reign (16-8-1-1) fell to the San Jose Barracuda (16-9-1-0) Saturday night in a shootout by a final score of 4-3 in front of 9,778 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will host the Barracuda tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. (PST) for the final game before the holiday break.
Martin Chromiak made the Teddy Bears fly in an eventful first period with the score tied at 2-2 through the opening 20 minutes. Andre Lee finished the night with a pair of goals and an assist. His short-handed score gave the Reign a 2-1 lead late in the first while he scored with Saville pulled with 43 seconds left in regulation to force extra hockey. Egor Afanasyev who scored a pair of goals in regulation provided the game winner in the shootout.
The score was tied up at 2-2 through the opening 20 minutes of play. Four seconds after the Reign killed off a penalty Egor Afansayev gave the Barracuda a 1-0 lead sending a shot into the net from the right boards with traffic in front. Martin Chromiak (11th) provided the equalizer at 8:36 from Andre Lee. At the right point in the offensive zone Lee was able to work a takeaway and slipped to the right circle where he sent a shot off the right pad of Jakub Skarek. The puck came right out to Chromiak driving through the left circle where he snapped it past Skarek trying to slide to his right. Cole Guttman was assessed a five-minute major for an illegal check to the head and a 10-minute game misconduct at 16:28. The Reign cleared the puck into the Barracuda zone early into the penalty kill Glenn Gawdin broke through at the inside hash marks collecting the puck and sending a backhand off the right pad of Skarek. Gawdin then got the puck back at the left side of the goal line and fed Andre Lee (10th) all alone at the top of the crease to give the Reign a 2-1 lead. Egor Afnasyev tied the game just 35 seconds later with a power-play score sending a wrist shot from the inside of the right circle far side past Isaiah Saville.
After a scoreless second period Oliver Wahlstrom struck on the power-play giving the Barracuda a 3-2 lead in the third period with 6:11 to play in regulation. From above the high slot he sent a wrist shot into the top left corner just 13 seconds into the man advantage. Andre Lee (11th) cashed in with his second of the night with Saville on the bench for an extra attacker making it a 3-3 score with 43 seconds to play from Joe Hicketts and Nikita Alexandrov. Hicketts let a shot go from the top of the high slot where Lee banged home the rebound at the top of the crease.
The Reign outshot the Barracuda 6-0 in the five-minute overtime, but they were unable to find the back of the net. Oliver Wahlstrom and Glenn Gawdin each scored in the first round of the shootout while Filip Bystedt and Taylor Ward failed to convert in round two. Egor Afanasyev scored in round three as Martin Chromiak was denied giving San Jose the 4-3 shootout victory.
Isaiah Saville suffered the loss making 18 saves on 21 shots while Jakub Skarek was victorious turning away 28 of 31 shots he faced. San Jose finished 2-for-8 on the power-play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord and Andre Lee.
Lord
On tonight’s shootout loss
Eventful game. Little bit of everything. Obviously going to take a little bit to think through that for sure. We’re 10 minutes after here so yeah a lot of thoughts. I thought we started a little slow. Definitely got into the game as we went there, and then obviously really liked the fight back with the goalie out to find a way to tie that up. And a couple of good looks in OT and unfortunately, just losing the shootout.
On Joe Hicketts tonight
He’s a great leader, great person, total competitor out there on game night. And usually in those situations, he finds a way to make a difference.
On picking Gawdin for the shootout
He was a no brainer. Ward as well as, those two are almost automatic. Very good success rate. And then we’re looking between probably three to five other players for the third shot. And Chromiak, he’s been hot. He’s been scoring here. He’s going each of the last two games. He’s feeling it a bit and I thought he had a good attempt.
On taking too many penalties
I think the game got a little out of hand early, which you know we probably needed some cooler heads a little bit in the third, which was unfortunate but a good learning lesson at the same time. I think we were playing hard, and it was unfortunate we had that many against.
On San Jose
I think they’re a real solid team with a lot of depth. They play with pace. They have some real skill but they’re gritty and they’re direct. They defend hard, much like us.
Lee
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