logo
Ontario Reign

REIGN FINAL – ONT 4, BAK 3 – Lord, Gawdin, Jämsen

49 Comments

Storyline: The Ontario Reign (30-14-1-1) defeated the Bakersfield Condors (25-13-7-0) Friday night by a final score of 4-3 in in front of 5,138 fans at Dignity Health Arena. The Reign will host the Condors Saturday night at 6 p.m. PST.

After falling behind 1-0 just 92 seconds into the game, Aatu Jämsen and Cole Guttman scored in the second period as the Reign led 2-1 going into the third period. Midway through the final 20 Glenn Gawdin stretched the lead to a pair but the Condors pulled within one on an extra attacker score with 2:59 remaining. Jared Wright scored an empty netter with 1:50 to play but Bakersfield scored another extra attacker goal with 44 seconds left but the Reign would prevail.

The Condors led 1-0 after the first period on a goal from Luke Prokop which came 92 seconds into the contest when he sent a wrist shot from the right point into the top left corner. Shots were 8-6 Reign in a penalty free period.

Ontario got on the board twice in the middle frame taking a 2-1 lead into the dressing room through 40 minutes. The Reign had a five-on-three power-play for about 90 seconds midway through the stanza but were unable to convert and Erik Portillo made a massive short-handed breakaway save. Aatu Jämsen (11th) tied the score at 10:09 on a deflection at the top of the crease after Joe Hicketts flung the puck to the cage from the left-wing wall. With 3:09 remaining in the period Cole Guttman (16th) provided a deflection near the net off a point shot from Angus Booth giving the Reign their first lead of the night. Shots were 18-8 Ontario in the period as they went 0-for-2 on the man advantage.

With about three and a half minutes left in the game the Condors pulled Tomkins for the extra attacker and James Hamblin scored on a rebound near the crease making it a one-score game with 2:59 to play. Jared Wright (12th) scored an empty netter with Erik Portillo receiving the assist making it a 4-2 advantage with 1:50 to play. Once again the Condors pulled Tomkins for the extra skater and Viljami Marjala scored on a wrist shot in the high slot making it 4-3 but the Reign would eventually prevail despite being outshot 7-3 in the final stanza.

Erik Portillo made 18 saves on 21 shots earning the victory while Matt Tomkins suffered the loss making 25 saves on 28 shots. The Reign went o-for-2 on the power-play while the Condors were 0-for-2.

BOX SCORE

Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord, Glenn Gawdin, and Aatu Jämsen.

Lord

Gawdin

Jämsen

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.