REIGN FINAL – ONT 3 , ABB 1 – Lord, Connors

The Ontario Reign (39-16-3-2) defeated the Abbotsford Canucks (22-34-3-3) Wednesday night in by a final score of 3-1 in front of 6,044 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will take on the Iowa Wild from Des Moines Friday night at 5 p.m. PST.

The Reign stretched their point streak to eleven games as Kenny Connors scored a pair of goals for his second multi-goal game of the year while Koehn Ziemmer found the back of the net for the second straight night. Nikita Alexandrov finished the evening with two assists for his ninth multi-point game of the year while Pheonix Copley made 24 saves and is 6-1-1 in his last eight starts.

Ontario led 1-0 after the first period as Kenny Connors (10^th) lit the lamp 4:06 into the game from Martin Chromiak. In the left corner fed Connors inside the right circle. The puck went off the right skate of Connors knocking the steel out of the boot. Connors worked the puck to his forehand and from his backside swung the puck low past the right leg of Patera. Shots were 9-7 Reign.

After a scoreless second period Koehn Ziemmer (10^th) made it a 2-0 Ontario advantage just 4:27 into the third period from Nikita Alexandrov and Kenta Isogai. From the right half wall Isogai sent the puck in front where Alexandrov drove the puck to blue paint and drew a penalty. In the meantime, Ziemmer claimed the puck in the left circle where he turned around and zipped it through the five-hole of Patera. The Canucks went on the power-play with 4:09 left in regulation and pulled Patera to make it a six-on-four situation and it would be Ty Mueller making it a one score game with 3:45 remaining on a shot from the high slot over the left shoulder of Copley. Kenny Connors (11^th) sealed the deal for Ontario with an empty net goal from Alexandrov with 15 seconds left for the 3-1 win.

Pheonix Copley made 24 saves on 25 shots in the win and is now 6-1-1 in his last eight starts. Jiří Patera suffered the loss making 26 saves on 28 shots. Ontario went 0-for-1 on the power-play while Abbotsford went 1-for-3.

BOX SCORE

Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord and Kenny Connors.

Lord
On tonight’s win
Good to win again. We kind of ran out of steam there in the last Coachella game. Obviously, it was nice to get a point, but it really wasn’t ourselves. Tonight was a step forward. We still got a long way to go to get back to our game. I like the way we found a way again. I think Copley was obviously great. Kenny Connors with a beautiful goal, Ziemmer with another. And then I like the composure, we obviously give one up, with the goalie out, and still find a way to get the job done.

On Nikita Novikov’s game
Solid. We certainly needed him tonight. We were down to four there for a while, once Booth took that hit and was out for a while. Obviously, Otto left the game early. I thought our D really battled and competed overall as a group tonight. And yeah, solid defender.

Connors

On earning two points tonight
It was big for us. I feel like we kind of went through a stretch of not doing things the way we were used to. It’s good to get back in the win column. Still got to build on our game and play a lot better, especially going on the road for the next few but yeah, it’s good to get two points.

On the team’s goaltending
It’s almost like we’re taking it for granted sometimes with how good these guys have been. And they’ve been consistent too. Every night we’re getting a really good effort from them, and we’re just trying to do whatever we can to help. But those guys have been great all year long.

On the upcoming road trip
We’re not going to look too far ahead. Just try to be where our feet are and play. Worry about the next game. We want to use this road trip to build towards the stretch down the rest of the season. It can definitely be an opportunity for us to build some momentum as well.