REIGN FINAL – ONT 4, TEX 3 – Lord, Guttman, Isogai

The Ontario Reign (25-11-1-1) defeated the Texas Stars (15-19-3-1) Saturday night by a final score of 4-3 in front of 6,778 fans at HEB Center. The Reign and Stars will meet in Texas Sunday at 3 p.m. PST.

Jared Wright scored with just 1.4 seconds left in regulation handing Ontario their second straight come from behind victory going into the third period trailing. In fact, the Reign are now 5-9-0 when trailing after 40 minutes this season having been in the situation in five of their last eight contests having won four times including three straight and four of their last five. Cole Guttman notched his second score of the night on an extra attacker tally with 14 seconds left tying the game while his power-play score in the second period tied the game at 2-2. Kenta Isogai got Ontario on the board first with his first AHL goal.

Ontario trailed 1-0 after the first period as Sean Chisholm got the Stars on the board with a rebound goal in front of the net with 5:33 left in the frame. The Reign held the slight edge in shots 5-4.

The Stars held a 3-2 advantage through 40 minutes of play outshooting the Reign 13-8. Kenta Isogai (1^st) pulled the Reign within one sending a wrist shot from inside the left face-off dot past the glove or Rémi Poirier unassisted at 9:08. Then 2:08 later Ontario went on their second power-play of the evening and Cole Guttman (10^th) cashed in 42 seconds into the man advantage with his third power-play score of the season setup by Martin Chromiak and Nikita Alexandrov. From the blue line Alexandrov fed Chromiak at the left half wall. Chromiak found Guttman inside the right face-off dot where he sent a wrist shot into the top right corner. The Stars re-took the lead 2:23 later when Michael Karow sent a slapshot home from the blue line with 5:37 left in the stanza.

With 14 seconds left in the game and Erik Portillo on the bench for an extra attacker Cole Guttman (11^th) tied the score at 3-3 from Koehn Ziemmer and Martin Chromiak. From the left point Chromiak gave the puck to Guttman at the left hask marks. From there Guttman fed Ziemmer at the left side of the goal line and attacked through the left circle getting a pass from Ziemmer below the left circle directing a shot into the top right corner over the glove of Poirier. Then with 1.4 seconds left in the contest Jared Wright (9^th) would provide the game winner from Francesco Pinelli and Kenny Connors. From the left backboards Wright sent the puck toward the top of the crease where it deflected off a Texas defender and into the net securing the 4-3 win. Ontario would outshot Texas 15-3 in the final 20 minutes.

Erik Portillo earned the win making 17 saves on 20 shots having now won his first four starts since returning from injury and eight of his last eight decisions. Rémi Poirier suffered the loss making 24 saves on 28 shots.

The Reign have now scored a power-play goal in three straight games and in eight of their last nine going 1-for-3. They were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and now 8-for-8 in their last three.

BOX SCORE

Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord, Cole Guttman, and Kenta Isogai.

Lord

Guttman 

Isogai