REIGN FINAL – ONT 1, CV 5 – Lord, Lee, Doty

The Ontario Reign (28-14-1-1) fell to the Coachella Valley Firebirds (23-14-5-0) Sunday by a final score of 5-1 in in front of 9,003 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will host the Tucson Roadrunners Wednesday at 7 p.m. PST.

Jack Hughes scored the lone goal for Ontario which came on the power-play in the first period. Francesco Pinelli lifted his point streak to three-games with an assist on the score while Samuel Bolduc picked up the primary helper. The Reign saw their home win streak end at six-games as Erik Portillo made 26 saves suffering his first loss since Oct. 17.

The Reign trailed 2-1 after the first period of play as the Firebirds held the edge in shots 13-10. Jagger Firkus got Coachella Valley on the board just 54 seconds into the game beating Erik Portillo with a back hander from inside the left circle. Andre Lee and John Hayden dropped the gloves at 5:58 after Lee laid a reverse hit on a Firebirds defender. The Reign went on the power-play at 7:37 but Lleyton Roed increased the Firebirds lead to 2-0 just 37 seconds into the Reign’s man advantage sending a wrist shot from the right circle low far side past Portillo on a two-on-one. Then 41 seconds later Jack Hughes (3^rd) who drew the penalty got Ontario on the board from Samuel Bolduc and Francesco Pinelli sending a wrist shot from the right circle over the glove of Jack LaFontaine. It took Ontario 6:49 into the game to register their first shot on net as they went 1-for-1 on the power-play and penalty kill in the frame.

Coachella Valley added to their lead in the second period scoring twice taking a 4-1 lead into the second intermission. Mitchell Stephens made it 3-1 at 4:17 when Lleyton Roed carried the puck behind the net and found Stephens in the left circle with Portillo caught out of position. Lleyton Roed buried his second of the game with 3:58 left in the frame when he fired a one-timer into the top left corner from the right circle. Shots were 9-9 as the Reign went 0-for-2 on the power-play.

Jagger Firkus scored his second of the night at 9:34 of the third period burying a rebound around the crease securing the Firebirds 5-1 win.

Erik Portillo suffered the loss making 26 saves on 31 shots while Jack LaFontaine picked up the win making 20 saves on 21 shots. Ontario finished 1-for-4 on the power-play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

BOX SCORE

Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord, Andre Lee, and Jacob Doty.

Lord
On losing back to back games
I found in my coaching experience, this is really where you can easily kind of really start overthinking things. Not hit the panic button, but, you know, just really overthink it. We’re a good hockey team. We’ve done a lot of good things this season. There’s so many games it ebbs and flows. Sometimes it’s,  that the puck can do some weird things. Just getting back to our foundation, our principles, here this week is really all we need. We’re very process driven, we’re one day at a time, one game at a time, as the all the cliches go and that’s what we got to do.

On the team’s character
We’ve seen it from our guys, all the comebacks, you know going into Colorado winning two games. There’s been a lot of character tests within a lot of adversity that we’ve overcome. We have a great group. We just need to be better, all of us.

Lee
On the last two games
The first game was physical. We battled. Obviously, they got one late there. Today we just came out flat. We didn’t have much in any of the three periods. We’ll regroup. I think we can’t let this drag us down. Get back at it Tuesday, and then go back and work here Wednesday.

On what he learned in going up with the Kings
You have to be consistent. Think we all know that, but that’s where it starts. You know, you got to go into every night being consistent, being hard on pucks, doing the job on the walls and stuff like that. And obviously up there, it’s kind of like a little bit of a different role. But when I come back down here, I just try to keep that same physicality.

Doty
On what the team can learn this weekend
I think not much from these two games. But going forward, I think facing a little adversity. We haven’t had to face much of that this year. You know, we’ve been rolling pretty good. Now our backs are against the wall and we’ll see how we come out. I think we’re gonna learn a lot about ourselves here next week.