REIGN FINAL – Reign 2, Roadrunners 1 – Copley, Krygier, Sturm

Back-to-back goals in a span of 39 seconds during the second period was enough offense for the Ontario Reign (25-15-1-1) to defeat the Tucson Roadrunners (19-19-2-0) on Friday night at Tucson Arena by a score of 2-1.

Jack Studnicka and Charles Hudon had the goals for the Reign, while goaltender Pheonix Copley stopped all but one of Tucson’s 22 shots on goal to record his third consecutive win in between the pipes.

BOX SCORE

Ontario began the game by piling up 17 shots on goal during the first period, but Roadrunners’ netminder Matt Villalta stopped everything that came his way in the opening 20, as did Copley in the Reign crease who made nine saves.

The scoreless first period also saw Luke Rowe drop the gloves with Tucson’s Hunter Drew.

Studnicka made it 1-0 in favor of Ontario at 5:32 of the second, scoring for the third consecutive game off a rush into the Tucson zone. The 12th goal of the season for Studnicka came with a primary helper from Cole Krygier and a secondary assist by Andre Lee.

Less than a minute later, Hudon extended the lead to 2-0 with his 15th of the year, also off an odd-man attack. Caleb Jones sent the puck on Hudon’s stick for a strike that beat Villalta up high at 6:11, which also included a second assist for Samuel Helenius.

After the two tallies, the referees’ whistle took over, producing a combined eight power play chances during the remainder of the game. Tucson scored its only goal of the contest on one of those opportunities at 4:07 of the third on a shot by Egor Sokolov, but they weren’t able to get any closer in the final minutes.

The Roadrunners finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while Ontario ended at 0-for-3.

Villalta suffered the loss despite turning out 29 of the Reign’s 31 shots on goal, holding a 31-22 edge in the game’s shot count.

Postgame reactions from Copley, Krygier and head coach Marco Sturm are below –

Pheonix Copley

Cole Krygier

Marco Sturm

The Reign and Roadrunners will conclude their two-game weekend series with a rematch on Saturday night at the Tucson Arena beginning at 6 p.m. PT.