REIGN FINAL – Reign 1, Barracuda 3 – Dvořák, Sturm

The San Jose Barracuda (26-18-2-3) got revenge from a loss in their building earlier this week to the Ontario Reign (30-15-2-1) by turning the tables on Saturday night to secure a 3-1 decision at Toyota Arena.

Martin Chromiak had the lone goal for the Reign in a losing effort, his third consecutive game with a power play strike. Goaltender Pheonix Copley made the start in between the pipes for Ontario and suffered the loss despite stopping 21 San Jose shots.

BOX SCORE

Neither team found the scoresheet in the first, which saw Ontario hold a 12-7 shots-on-goal advantage. San Jose didn’t record its first shot on goal until the 14th minute of the opening period.

The Barracuda took a 1-0 lead when Thomas Bordeleau found the back of the net at 4:45 of the middle frame.

San Jose added to their advantage at 6:52 of the third when Ethan Cardwell scored an unassisted goal to make it 2-0. Less than three minutes later, Mitchell Russell scored his first AHL goal of the year to extend the Barracuda advantage to 3-0 and put the game out of reach for Ontario.

In addition to being the Reign’s only goal, Chromiak’s tally was also the only man-advantage conversion of the contest. The final marker of the game came with only 20 seconds left on the third period clock and had assists to both Reilly Walsh and Charles Hudon.

For Hudon, the helper extended his current point streak to eight games, which has spanned the entire month of February. On the year, Hudon leads the Reign with 47 points while appearing in 44 contests.

Gabriel Carriere made the start in goal for San Jose and stopped 23 of 24 Ontario attempts on goal. He didn’t allow anything for the first 59 minutes before surrendering Chromiak’s late strike.

The Reign ended at 1-for-4 on the power play, while San Jose finished 0-for-2 on the man-advantage.

Postgame reactions from Jakub Dvořák and head coach Marco Sturm are below –

Jakub Dvořák
On tonight’s loss
They came ready for sure. That was probably the main difference. We had a hard time today finding the lanes to the net. We couldn’t get into their zone. Which led into just one goal. I think that’s the main reason.

On Martin Chromiak’s goal
He’s in great shape. I think it fits him perfectly on the on the power play and the guys are finding him. He’s a shooter, he can shoot. So that’s one positive from today.

On his long shift in the 2nd period
It’s hard, especially when it’s not two minutes, but five minutes. You just try to stay steady, stay at the net front, because you don’t have that much energy to run around in the corners. You just need to do the dirty job, block some shots and do some hard play too. Once you get in the cycle, it’s hard to get out. You want to do the hard play to get out of it.

 

Marco Sturm
On the difference between tonight and Wednesday’s win
Overall, our commitment, our detail, our energy, was just not there right from the start. Even the start was decent, but just had a feeling it’s going to be a grind and unfortunately we couldn’t get out of it. I thought Copley was the only guy who played normal. It was just not good enough.

On the message to the team going into tomorrow
They all know. I think the room knows that today was just not good enough. It’s a grind. It’s end of February. It’s going to be harder tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. Gotta make sure you’re going to be ready to go. You have to prepare yourself, and you have to leave everything on the ice every time you can. This is something we have to learn. Again, it was unfortunate and it was just not their day.

On it being the first home game back after a road trip
I think everyone knows it’s not easy when you travel a lot and especially here in the minors. You know, we don’t get the private jets but those are the games you have to grind it out. You have to find a way to get yourself going or your teammate, whatever it is, you have to bring something to a table.

 

Ontario will complete their week with a home contest against the Calgary Wranglers on Sunday afternoon beginning at 5 p.m.