Playing in his professional debut Saturday night, goaltender Carter George stopped all 33 shots that came his way to lead the Ontario Reign (41-24-3-1) to a 4-0 victory over the San Jose Barracuda (35-26-5-4) at Tech CU Arena.
Reilly Walsh also made a major contribution to the win, scoring a season-high three points with two goals and an assist, while Martin Chromiak tallied a goal and an assist. The victory clinched Ontario a home ice position for the first round of the upcoming 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs.
For the second straight night, Ontario opened the scoring early and jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Martin Chromiak continued his hot streak by scoring off a deflection of a shot by Joseph Cecconi 1:50 into the first, netting his 17th goal of the year and fourth in his last five games. Reilly Walsh also factored in on the goal, adding the second assist on the play.
This time, however, the Reign were able to quickly extend their lead when Kaleb Lawrence won an offensive zone faceoff directly to Walsh, who sent a shot over San Jose goaltender Yaroslav Askarov and into the net to make it a 2-0 game in favor of Ontario at 2:47 of the first.
Walsh wasn’t done yet either. He dropped the gloves with Barracuda defender John Gormley at 9:08 of the first to complete a ‘Gordie Howe’ hat trick and added his second goal of the contest at 17:05 of the second to put Ontario ahead 3-0. Walsh’s sixth strike of the 2024-25 campaign came off a pass by Jack Studnicka from beneath the goal line during 4-on-4 play which found the blueliner open in the slot for a quick release. A second helper on the play was credited to Andre Lee.
The lone strike of the third period came from Taylor Ward, who buried a feed from Charles Hudon on the power play to make it a 4-0 game in favor of the Reign. Ward’s 12th tally of the year also had a second assist from Chromiak and came at 11:25 of the third.
George did the rest of Ontario in the crease, stopping 10 attempts in the first, 12 in the second and 11 more in the final frame. He was later named the No. 1 star of the game.
Askarov turned out 25 attempts in a losing effort for San Jose, whose league-leading power play was held quiet and finished 0-for-3 on the night. Ward’s third period goal was the lone man-advantage marker of the contest and had Ontario go 1-for-4 with an extra player on the ice.
Postgame reactions from George and head coach Marco Sturm are below –
Carter George
On his feelings after being able to have a great debut
I’m feeling pretty incredible right now. It’s a pretty surreal feeling to be able to win that game like that. I just tried going out there, giving the team the best chance of winning, and they performed in front of me. They made my life really easy. Our d-corps was unbelievable in front of me tonight, and my forwards produced. Couldn’t thank them any more, but that’s what they put in front of me.
On how he felt about the team’s psyche coming into the game
I could kind of see it a little bit. Obviously, we let last night slip away from our hands, and you know they’re going to bounce back the next night. Guys today looked pretty hungry in the room, and you can kind of kind of feel that energy in the room, and it felt pretty high. I knew they were going to go on like that and it made my life a lot easier.
On going from a team that lost in the playoffs to joining a group that is gearing up for a run
Yeah, I mean, it’s been kind of a crazy last week, but I’m just trying to take it day by day, step by step, and try and make the most of every opportunity I’ve got, and for me, I’m just happy to be here and just trying to get the most out of this experience and just try and do my best to help the team win.
On the differences in the style of play and how NHL training camp helped him
Yeah it helped lots. I mean, just kind of getting a taste of the pro life, and now I’m here and camp definitely helped me out a lot. I definitely noticed it was bigger, stronger, faster, everyone was a lot better, but it was a very structured game and structured games are a lot easier for goalies to play in. When you kind of know where the puck’s going to go, it makes my life a lot easier. So credit to my team, I mean they made my life really easy in the d-zone, made it really predictable for me.
On the help of goaltending coach Adam Brown this week
I think the biggest thing for me was just that he told me to trust myself and believe in myself and know that I’m good enough to be here. I think that kind of flipped a switch for me halfway through the week and practices, and that really helped me tonight.”
Marco Sturm
On the play of George in his first professional game
He was great. He was outstanding tonight. I think everyone was really excited, first of all, to see him again, and most importantly, that he had a great game like today and a shutout so he got the water bath after the game and the player of the game as well so it was definitely a special night for this kid.
On the impact that George had, energizing the rest of the team
We talked about it a little bit before the game. It’s not just him. We Booth back, he’s missed some time, we had Otto Salin in his first game, too. So, a couple new faces, and we just wanted to keep it simple in front of George and he did the rest, pretty much. He was very calm, but the good thing is, I think, and that’s what I believe, is that we already knew him. He was here at Training Camp, guys already knew him and how good he can be so for me personally, it was probably not a big surprise.
On the play of Reilly Walsh and his effort
He was really good. And he got us going with this fight early on, it got the guys going. He scored not just nice goals, but he scored some big goals, you know in the right moment. I think that’s what was missing yesterday. We had some chances, but we just didn’t score. Today, we grabbed those chances and we buried them at the right time. That for me was the biggest difference.
On the team’s mindset going into the game
We already started in the locker room. It started this morning in our meeting. It carried over to our pregame meeting. It carried over to the start of the game. I think we just had a different approach, a different mindset, today than yesterday and that’s all what it is. Guys are better when they’re more emotionally involved and yesterday we only had a few, and today we had the whole team.
On having Angus Booth back in the lineup
Honestly we actually we missed him a lot, and it was so nice to see him today. I felt like he didn’t miss a beat at all. He was the same Boother like before the injuries. He’s huge for our team. Also has a left-hander, he can kill, he does all the dirty work, and he can play against the big guys too. It was really nice to see him back, really nice to have him back and hopefully he’s going to stay healthy down the stretch.
On clinching home ice in the first round of the postseason
It’s definitely nice because you never know where you’re going to travel to, right? And I think everyone is pretty much the whole league is in the same boat that everyone has back-to-back games in the last weekend. And to then travel on Monday, it’s hard. So it’s nice to start at home at least so you don’t have to travel, so you can have an extra day of rest and I hope that’s going to pay off for us.
The Reign will play their final road game of the 2024-25 regular season on Saturday against the Barracuda at Tech CU Arena with puck drop scheduled for 6 p.m.
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