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AHL Ontario Reign

Reign Add to Franchise Record with 11th Sellout of the Season

February 20, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release


Ontario Reign LW Jordan Samuels-Thomas vs. the Texas Stars
Ontario Reign LW Jordan Samuels-Thomas vs. the Texas Stars
(Ontario Reign)

Ontario, CA - Forward Andrew Crescenzi scored a goal and grabbed an assist and netminder Peter Budaj recorded his AHL-leading 28th win to lead the Ontario Reign (30-13-3-1) past the Texas Stars (31-19-3-3), 4-1, in front of a sellout crowd of 9,491 on Friday night at Citizens Business Bank Arena. The sellout is the sixth consecutive packed arena for the Reign.

"This win was big," said forward Nic Dowd. "Those points are huge. I think this is a good test because this is a good team. The score was 4-1, but it could've easily been 2-1 and Peter played awesome tonight as he always does."

Through the first 20 minutes, the Stars defense was air tight as netminder Maxime Lagace turned away all 12 shots faced. Ontario's biggest opportunity came during the 15th minute when Lagace came away with a right pad save to steal Crescenzi of a goal on the Texas man advantage. Both teams remained scoreless as the first period came to a close.

In the second frame, the Reign pressed the Stars defense and generated chances, but Lagace continued to shine in the net. The Stars goaltender denied Crescenzi yet again at 3:15 with a sliding save. Forward Jordan Samuels-Thomas finally broke the scoreless tie at 7:46 with help from defender Jeff Schultz and Crescenzi.

"We try to play strong defensively [against Texas] because we know they're really talented up front. They're a fast team so we have to match their speed," said Crescenzi.

Less than two minutes later, the Stars answered with a goal of their own on the power play thanks to forward Jason Dickinson. Dickinson retrieved the puck right in front of Budaj and buried it into the net. Ontario tacked on 12 more shots in the period while limiting Texas to six. Ontario continued to generate opportunities. The Stars looked to go ahead at 18:31 after Reign defender Vincent LoVerde hooked forward Brett Ritchie on the breakaway for a penalty shot. Ritchie tried to cut across from right to left, but was denied with a pad save by Budaj. Budaj is now 2-for-2 on penalty shots.

At 3:46 of the third period, Loverde broke the 1-1 tie, hammering home his sixth goal of the season, assisted by forwards Dowd and Sean Backman. With the assist, Backman earns his team-leading 38th point. Moments later, forward Jonny Brodzinski stretched Ontario's lead to two, scoring on a feed from defender Christian Ehrhoff. Brodzinski picked up an Ehrhoff rebound and roofed the puck under the crossbar to make it 3-1.

"Overall, I think having Ehrhoff on the back end gives us kind of that quarterback that you're looking for," said Head Coach Mike Stothers. "It's a work in progress, but I don't think you can measure it by the numbers."

Crescenzi capped the scoring with an unassisted shorthanded empty-net goal at 16:33. Lagace finished the game with 31 saves while Budaj made 21.

"Each and every game is important. We want to be considered the best so there's pressure and expectations to win." said Stothers. "We expect to win every game, and we expect to win the last game. We don't settle for okay. We want to be great, so you keep pushing. We'll push again tomorrow to make ourselves better and keep going in the right direction."

The Ontario Reign kickoff a five-game road trip tomorrow, Saturday, February 20 against the San Diego Gulls at 7:05 p.m. at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California. The journey heads to Texas for a pair of contests against the Texas Stars on February 26 and 27 and San Antonio Rampage on March 6 and March 9.

Push the Reign into the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs! The Reign Stretch-Run Pack is on sale now! Grab tickets to four great Reign games, free parking, a $10 gift certificate to Team LA and grab Reign merchandise and a $10 gift certificate to Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que! Packs start as low as $49! More Information; Buy Packs

Become a "Fan" of the Reign on Facebook at Facebook.com/OntarioReign, join the conversation on Twitter at Twitter.com/OntarioReign and follow us on Instagram at Instagram.com/OntarioReignHockey.

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Ontario Reign LW Jordan Samuels-Thomas vs. the Texas Stars
Ontario Reign LW Jordan Samuels-Thomas vs. the Texas Stars
   



American Hockey League Stories from February 20, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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