Reign Grab Control, Top Tucson Sunday
Published on October 12, 2025 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release
The Ontario Reign (1-0-1-0) defeated the Tucson Roadrunners (1-1-0-0) Sunday afternoon by a final score of 4-2 in front of 6,214 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will host the Henderson Silver Knights on Friday, Oct. 19th at 7 p.m. PST.
After Tucson took a 2-1 lead just 63 seconds into the second period it was all Reign moving forward as Joe Hicketts, Otto Salin, and Martin Chromiak notched three unanswered goals. Akil Thomas scored for his second straight game while Salin's goal was his first professional North American tally. Kenny Connors tallied his first professional point.
The score read 1-1 after the first period with shots favoring Tucson 7-5. Tucson's Kevin Rooney struck at 6:21 on a tick-tac-toe play tapping the puck home from inside the left circle. Shortly after the conclusion of the Reign's one power-play in the stanza Akil Thomas (2nd) tied the game from Kenny Connors and Jack Millar with 3:46 left in the period. Connors collected the puck in the left corner and fed Thomas at the goal line. From there he cut to the net and tried to feed Jared Wright on the right post. The puck hit off two Tucson defenders skate and back to Thomas a couple feet above the crease where he pounded the puck past Stauber.
Ontario led 3-2 after 40 minutes of play. Tucson's Cameron Hebig cashed in on a rebound with a power-play goal just 63 seconds in. At 9:33 Joe Hicketts (1st) tied evened the game at 2-2 from Kaleb Lawerence and Jacob Doty. Lawrence led a two-on-one into the offensive zone down the left wing. Hicketts jumped up on the play and received a feed from Lawrence in the high slot and fired a quick shot over the glove of Stauber. Otto Salin (1st) gave the Reign their first lead of the afternoon with 1:59 remaining in the stanza. Salin collected the puck at his own blue line and turned on the jets down the right wing. With pressure on his back he cut to the middle from inside the right face-off dot and went fore-hand back-hand through the legs of Stauber. Shots were 13-10 Ontario.
The lone goal in the third period was a power-play tally from Martin Chromiak (1st) 5:12 into the period from Hicketts and Andre Lee. Glenn Gawdin won the face-off in the right circle and to his right Lee slid the puck to Hicketts at the blue-line. Chromiak blasted a one timer from the left circle far-side past Stauber. Ontario outshot Tucson 9-4 in the final 20 minutes of play.
Erik Portillo made 19 saves on 21 shots in the win while Jaxson Stauber received the loss making 23 saves on 27 shots.
Postgame reactions from Martin Chromiak and head coach Andrew Lord are below -
Martin Chromiak
On earning the first win of the season
It feels great. I think last game we should have won. We played good, just a tough end of that game. So it's really good that we ended up winning this game.
The message in the room going into game 2
We're gonna have to clean up some stuff, especially in our D zone. I think that was the main focus. I think everyone knows how to play in the offensive zone. I just think we had to clean up the defense part a little bit.
On scoring his first of the season
I think it was in my mind a little bit. I just wanted to get it out of the way. I think I had a couple chances earlier in this game, but I wasn't really focusing on that. But like you said, I think the end of my last year was good. I felt good playing the way I should be playing. So I just wanted to start the year the way I finished.
On his goal
They were doing a pretty good job covering me. So we said, if we win it clean, I might be open for a split second. And it worked out perfect.
Andrew Lord
On today's win
It was awesome. I mean, it was an ugly start. First period was pretty gross, to be honest. Loved our character from Hicketts leading the way. You could just tell we became a team as the game went along. It was really interesting to see over the course of a couple hours, how you can find your game and get relentless and start really competing. Really a tale of two games so really fun win. Good to get that one after a hard fought two games.
On the team's turning point
I honestly think his (Hicketts) compete there in the first when he got called for the extra penalty, I thought him sticking up for Jamsen, you could just tell he was going to pull some people into the fight. And he eventually got everyone into it. His goal was obviously huge. Otto's was big, but I think it was more just the compete factor overall. We really got going there probably five minutes into the second. I think from there, we never really looked back. I thought it was really impressive.
On today's mindset
Going into the game, I felt like we were really focused and dialed in and sometimes that's hockey, you come out flat. But then we found it as the game went. In the third, we were relentless, and I was really proud of the guys. They just kept pushing.
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