Reign Doubled up by San Jose to Close Weekend
Published on December 21, 2025 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release
The Ontario Reign (16-9-1-1) fell to the San Jose Barracuda (17-9-1-0) Sunday afternoon by a final score of 6-3 in front of 6,912 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will play in San Jose on Saturday, Dec. 27 at 6 p.m. (PST).
Koehn Ziemmer and Jared Wright each scored a goal and tallied an assist for the Reign in the loss while Jack Hughes scored his second goal of the season. Glenn Gawdin picked up an assist extending his point streak to six-games. Jacob Doty appeared in the lineup for the first time since Nov. 4 after missing the last 16 games with an injury and finished the contest with 17 penalty minutes including a fighting major. Mattias Sholl made his AHL debut making 21 saves.
The Reign trailed 3-1 after the first period. Andre Lee was assessed a two-minute roughing minor and a ten-minute game misconduct for leaving the bench. Jimmy Huntington gave the Barracuda a 1-0 lead with a power-play score at 4:49. Just 17 seconds after the goal Jacob Doty dropped the gloves with Braden Hache. Jared Wright (6th) provided the equalizer at 12:43 from Koehn Ziemmer and Nikita Alexandrov. From the left boards Alexandrov sent the puck to the net where Ziemmer collected it at the right post and took it behind the cage with Gabriel Carriere caught out of position. Ziemmer went for the wrap around that eventually bounced off Wright and into the cage. Kasper Haltunen gave San Jose back the lead with 3:59 left in the frame before Shane Bowers made it a 3-1 advantage 29 seconds later. Shots were 11-10 Ontario.
Each team got on the board in the middle frame as San Jose led 4-2 through 40 minutes. Filip Bystedt stretched the lead to 4-1 for the Barracuda at 9:39. At 12:30 San Jose's Donovan Houle was assessed a five-minute major for cross-checking as well as a ten-minute misconduct. Lucas Vanroboys of the Barracuda and Ontario's Jacob Doty each received two-minute roughing minors and ten-minute misconducts. The Reign failed to convert on the five-minute power-play but Koehn Ziemmer (2nd) scored 76 seconds after the man advantage from Glenn Gawdin and Angus Booth making it a 4-2 deficit with 1:14 left in. From the right circle Gawdin fed Ziemmer at the near circle where he sent a wrist shot short side past Gabriel Carriere.
Jack Hughes (2nd) pulled Ontario within one making it a 4-3 game from Jared Wright with 4:16 remaining in the contest. Wright fed Hughes above the high slot where he sent a wrist shot low past Carriere. The Reign pulled Mattias Sholl for an extra attacker with about 90 seconds remaining, but the Barracuda proved a pair of empty-net scores to cap off the 6-3 win.
Mattias Sholl made 21 saves on 25 shots suffering the loss in his AHL debut while Gabriel Carriere picked up the win making 26 saves on 29 shots. San Jose went 1-for-3 on the power-play while Ontario was 0-for-2.
Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord.
Lord
On tonight's loss
A frustrating one obviously. Thought we started really well. Thought we got in the forecheck. Obviously, really unfortunately to lose Andre Lee. One of our go to guys. Arguably one of our best forwards here for us this season. He gets kicked out of the game there, which was really unfortunate. Liked the battle.
On the goals against and end of the third period
Thought we just shot ourselves in the in the foot. The first one was the PK, but then the second and third, in particular, those goals, you know, unforced errors for sure. Not playing to our identity. Loved the clawback. Really thought we were going to find a way. It really felt like we were going to get one there, maybe late, or six on five.
On the weekend
I do think there were a lot of good lessons this weekend. You got to give their team credit. It's a good team, hard to play against. And I think that's potentially a future playoff matchup, right? So good experience for a lot of our young guys. I think a lot of our younger guys got some good minutes, particularly tonight.
On the rookies putting the puck in the net
It was huge. It was nice for all three of them to contribute offensively. The Ziemmer goal was a big one when we were down a little bit there, that gave us some good momentum late in the second. And then obviously Hughes with one too, which is great to see. Those guys are learning every day. They're getting better and better, and it was good to see them contribute.
American Hockey League Stories from December 21, 2025
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