Martin Chromiak scored an unassisted goal 2:04 into overtime Wednesday night to give the Ontario Reign (41-22-3-4) a come-from-behind 4-3 road victory over the Bakersfield Condors (38-27-3-2) at Mechanics Bank Arena. The win featured three power play goals for Ontario from three different scorers, including Samuel Fagemo, Francesco Pinelli and Brandt Clarke.
The contest completed the regular season series between the Reign and Condors for 2023-24, which saw Ontario go 5-3-0-0. The Reign remain in a tie for second place in the Pacific Division alongside the Tucson Roadrunners, each with 89 points in the standings.
Goaltender Erik Portillo picked up the 24th victory of his rookie campaign by stopping 24 shots in the contest, improving his record to 24-10-3 in 38 appearances this season.
Ontario took the lead first at 12:28 of the first when Fagemo netted his 42nd of the season and his league-leading 19th on the power play to give the Reign a 1-0 advantage. Assists on the strike went to both Clarke and captain TJ Tynan.
The Condors responded later in the frame when, moments after goaltender Jack Campbell stopped a point-blank shot by Joe Hicketts off the rush, Matvey Petrov saw his pass deflect past Portillo to tie the game up 1-1 at 17:35 of the opening period.
Bakersfield took their first lead of the contest and made it 2-1 just 1:25 into the second when Raphael Lavoie converted a 2-on-1 rush by wristing the puck by the left pad of Portillo.
The contest remained a 2-1 score until Ontario converted on the man-advantage with just nine seconds remaining in a penalty to Bakersfield’s Alex Peters, who was called for cross-checking. A one-timer from the point by Joe Hicketts deflected off Pinelli and went over Campbell before rolling past the goal line to tie the game at 2-2. Pinelli’s 12th goal of the year came at 9:03 of the third and had a second assist credited to Tyler Madden.
Less than a minute later, after another Condors penalty whistled to Brad Malone for interference at 9:49, Akil Thomas won a faceoff to Brandt Clarke, who wristed a shot through traffic and into the net to put the Reign back on top by a 3-2 score four seconds into the advantage at 9:53.
But Bakersfield got even again late during a 4-on-4 situation, which saw Ty Tullio capitalize on another 2-on-1 rush for the Condors at 14:57 with a shot that tied the contest back up at 3-3.
The game remained deadlocked and needed overtime to decide a winner. Chromiak sent Ontario home with the extra point by stealing the puck away from a Condors’ player and then immediately slapping it underneath Campbell with a quick backhand shot from the top of the crease to net his 14th goal of the season.
The Reign outshot Bakersfield by a 40-27 margin in the contest and finished 3-for-4 on the power play while holding the Condors to an 0-for-1 mark on the man-advantage. Campbell ended the game with 36 saves in a losing effort for the home team.
Postgame thoughts from Reign head coach Marco Sturm and Chromiak are below.
Marco Sturm
Overall thoughts on the game
I didn’t like our start, we didn’t play a good 20-40 minutes. The second period was a little bit better but still not our standard. We had a high expectation today for having a good game especially after a game like Henderson but guys found a way to win a hockey game and that matters but there is still work to do.
On his team breaking out with three power play goals in the game
It’s always good. As a power play unit you always want to feel good and you feel good when you score. Guys stepped up today for big goals and I’m glad we did because our 5-on-5 game was just not good today.
On Chromiak’s winner and his play in the game
Chromie had some good moments today. Sometimes it’s tough, we had Grudstrom here for a few games and it kind of took his job so that means he also took his ice time a little bit. So he had to find a way to manage those kind of minutes and that’s why he had those moments in the third period because I thought he was a little more rested than other guys and he used his speed and I’m just glad he caught the other guys a little bit off guard off the faceoff and good for him.
On the team’s overtime play of late, which has seen them get wins
There’s a few different reasons. I think guys feel it now. They’re actually excited and that’s a big difference. We are getting the saves, sometimes we’re lucky too but guys want to play overtime because we’ve been successful.
Martin Chromiak
On the play in overtime that produced the winning goal
I think I was just trying to get on the forecheck and track as hard as I could. I think their defenseman put the puck too far from his stick so I just saw the chance to take it so I tried it and then I just hit the puck without even looking and I’m glad it went in.
On if he was trying to score in that situation
The first thought was to get the puck back, but once I got it, I was almost at the top of the crease so I knew the goalie wasn’t ready and there was another guy in front so I was just hoping to get it past him and I knew that the goalie would not be ready so I’m glad that it went in.
On his game overall before scoring going against Jack Campbell
Yeah in the first I had a breakaway and I made a pretty good move, I think he made a nice save but he’s a really good goalie so almost every goal we scored was with traffic in front and the fourth goal was different but he wasn’t ready for that.
On the difference between last year’s stretch run and what the team has done this year
I think last year, especially at the end of the season, we had a pretty bad stretch when we lost a lot of games. I think this year is the other way, we’re winning almost every game, we’re feeling good, we know how to get the job done, especially in the third period and in overtime I think we had a lot of overtime wins lately so I think we’re feeling pretty good and we’re ready for the playoffs.
The Reign close out their 2023-24 regular season schedule with a back-to-back series in Colorado this weekend against the Eagles that begins on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. and concludes with a 2:05 p.m. matchup on Sunday afternoon at Blue Arena in Loveland.
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