The Ontario Reign fell to the Coachella Valley Firebirds Saturday night by a final score of 6-2 in front of 7,558 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will next play Sunday, Oct. 11 in Coachella Valley at 3 p.m. PST.
Koehn Ziemmer and Jared Wright scored the lone goals on the night for Ontario before the Firebirds scored four unanswered, two empty netters, to spoil the Reign’s home opener.
After 20 minutes of play the score was 2-2 with each team generating 12 shots on goal in the opening frame. Jani Nyman gave Coachella Valley a 1-0 lead at 3:24 from Jagger Firkus and Tyson Jugnauth sending a one-timer from the top of the right circle over the left shoulder of Slukynsky. Koehn Ziemmer (1st) tied the score at 7:01 from Kirill Kirsanov and Lane Pederson. Pederson won an offensive zone face-off in the left circle and Kirsanov at the left point skated the puck down the wall. From there he sent a wrist shot to the net where Ziemmer got a stick on it to direct it home. Jani Nyman got his second power-play goal of the game from John Hayden and Tyson Jugnauth giving the Firebirds a 2-1 advantage at 11:17 collecting a rebound at the right side of the crease. Just 1:18 later Jared Wright (2nd) tied the contest back up with assists going to Vojtech Čihař and Jack Hughes. Hughes had an initial opportunity at the right side of the crease where Ostman made the stop. From there Čihař captured the puck and fed Wright at the left side of the crease. Coachella Valley went 2-for-2 on the power-play in the period while Ontario did not have a man advantage opportunity.
Ontario trailed 4-2 after the second period as Jagger Firkus found the back of the net for the Firebirds twice in the middle frame. His first came 79 seconds into the period on a deflection on a shot from Tyson Jugnauth. Then with 36 seconds left in the period Firkus doubled the lead from Jugnauth with a power-play strike sending from the right circle low far side past Slukysnky.
The only two goals in the third period would be empty netters for Coachella Valley. The Reign pulled their goaltender with 4:15 remaining and at 4:05 Oscar Fisker Mølgaard made it 5-2 then Jani Nyman capped off his night on an empty netter with 3:06 left securing the Firebirds 6-2 win.
Hampton Slukynsky suffered the loss making 25 saves on 29 shots while Victor Ostman picked up the win stopping 28 of 30 shots. Coachella Valley went 3-for-4 on the power-play while Ontario was 0-for-4.
Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord and Koehn Ziemmer.
Lord
Ziemmer
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