The Ontario Reign (38-16-1-1) defeated the Henderson Silver Knights (24-19-6-4) Sunday afternoon by a final score of 2-1 in front of 2,322 fans at Lee’s Family Forum. The Reign will host the Colorado Eagles on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PST.
Cole Guttman scored a goal and an assist stretching his point streak to four-games while Glenn Gawdin also found the back of the net and notched a helper. Erik Portillo allowed just one goal for the second straight game making 27 saves as he picked up his third straight win. The Reign extended their win streak to seven-games while improving to 19-5-1-1 in one-score games having won 13 of their last 14.
Ontario led 1-0 after the first period of play as Glenn Gawdin (12th) finished a beautiful passing sequence from Cole Guttman and Logan Brown at 13:24. From the center circle Guttman flipped the puck to Brown at the right wing. From there Brown fed Guttman with some speed where he drove the puck to the right circle and found Gawdin streaking in back door for a tap in. Shots were 13-12 Henderson.
The Reign held a 2-0 advantage through 40 minutes of play as Cole Guttman (20th) stretched the lead to a pair from Glenn Gawdin at 13:19 of the second period. In the left circle Gawdin won the face-off forward where Guttman raced to the puck behind the net. From there he got to the right circle and flipped a backhander off a Silver Knights defender in front into the back of the cage. Shots were 8-7 Henderson in the stanza as the Reign killed off a power-play shortly after Guttman’s score.
Jeremy Davies got the Silver Knights on the board with 7:14 with a wrist shot from the high slot past the glove of Portillo making it a 2-1 score but the Reign were able to lock it down after for the win.
Erik Portillo collected his third straight win making 27 saves on 28 shots while Cameron Whitehead suffered the loss making 23 saves on 25 shots. The Reign did not receive a power-play while they went 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.
Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord and Cole Guttman.
Lord
Guttman
Rules for Blog Commenting
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.