A goal by Akil Thomas with less than four minutes remaining broke a 1-1 deadlock and sent the Ontario Reign (32-21-3-4) past the Tucson Roadrunners (35-20-3-2) Wednesday night at Toyota Arena. After empty-net goals by Taylor Ward and Tyler Madden, the Reign finished with a 4-1 victory.
Goaltender Aaron Dell stopped 32 shots to remain unbeaten in regulation during his last six starts and pick up the victory, while Ward had a game-high three points (1-2=3), Thomas finished with two (1-1=2) and captain TJ Tynan earned two assists.
After an early fight between Jacob Doty and Curtis Douglas two minutes into the game got both sides into the game, neither team was able to break through the opposing goaltender during the remainder of the opening period.
Dell was the standout for Ontario early on, making 12 saves in the first 20 minutes.
The opening goal of the contest came from Samuel Fagemo, who kept pace on the AHL’s leaderboard with his 37th goal of the season to give the Reign a 1-0 advantage at 11:55 of the second period. Fagemo was alone in front of the net after picking up a slip pass from Tynan and then deked goaltender Matt Villalta with a move to his backhand for the finish.
While Ontario held its lead into the third period, the Roadrunners evened the game up on a goal by Josh Doan at 6:25 of the final frame.
The contest remained tied until the final minutes, when Ward had a rush into the offensive end down the left wing. He initially didn’t have room for a shot, so he curled back on the left circle to create space and then sent a pass to the back door for Thomas, who wristed it into the goal for his 18th tally of the season. The trio’s third linemate, Madden, was credited with a second assist on the play which came at 16:24 of the third.
Ward then added insurance with an empty-net goal for his seventh strike of the year at 19:12 and then picked up the first assist on a final tally from Madden at 19:50.
Neither club was successful on the man-advantage in the game, with Tucson going 0-for-1 and Ontario finishing at 0-for-3 on the power play. Villalta turned out 19 of the Reign’s shots on goal during a losing effort.
Wednesday night’s game was the eighth and final game between the two teams during the 2023-24 regular season. Each side won four of the meetings.
Postgame thoughts from Sturm as well as Ward and Dell are below.
Marco Sturm
On tonight’s win
I think we were lucky today. Let’s be honest, it was probably one of our worst efforts of the year for some reason. Dell kept us in the game. We were sitting on that 1-0 lead there, then they came back and we made a couple nice plays. At the end of the day, I felt like we got lucky today and we’ll move on and definitely take the points.
On the recent struggles on the power play
We’re just not simple enough. We just try to make more and more plays instead of just shoot to break them down and just look for the easy way. Even on zone entries. It’s just been way too complicated, so we’ve almost got to go back to basics and simplify our power play and get to shooting pucks again and work from there.
On Aaron Dell’s improvements and effort tonight
We needed him today because we were flat and he came up big the whole game. I know he struggled in the past with starts but today he was definitely there and he got us the points today. He’s just like any other player. He’s just like any other player and he missed a lot of time and didn’t have a regular routine or training camp. He’s been overseas and that was a lot, so sometimes it just takes time. We knew we had to be patient with him.
On Taylor Ward’s impact this season
He’s been an interesting player because he can mean a lot for the team. He means a lot for our team when he plays the right way, and if not, then he’s just going to be an average player. He knows that too. We’re not looking at his goals and assists. We’re looking at different stuff and he’s been getting better and better, especially this season. We’re going to continue to work with him and to grow his game, but I think for him personally, it’s definitely nice to land on the scoresheet.
Taylor Ward
Aaron Dell
On seeing a few shots early to get dialed in
After the last few games, I’ve been talking with [Adam Brown] about getting the start dialed right away. I think [Tucson] gave me a couple perimeter shots to start off, which helps me get into it a little more too. That was kind of my focus tonight to be dialed in right off the hop.
On his early losses to Tucson and earning a big win tonight
I think we’ve worked on a lot of things since the last time [we played them]. We’ve cleaned up our game quite a bit. It wasn’t pretty tonight but we found a way to get the job done and that’s all that matters. They’re a very good team. They have a lot of skill and they get a lot of pucks to the net. They’re big and tough, and they’re hard to play against. They’re a team you don’t really want to see a lot of times.
On his relationship with Erik Portillo
It’s great. He’s awesome. I like watching him play. I like his style. I cant play that style because I’m not 6’6 like he is, but I try to learn stuff from him too. He plays a very, very different style from me and if I can pick something up off of him too, that can make me better. If we’re both going, that makes the team better overall. We’ve got a really good relationship and we get along really well.
The Reign continue their chase for a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs on Friday night when they host the Calgary Wranglers at 7 p.m. inside Toyota Arena.
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