Reign Hold off San Diego
February 20, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release
Led by three-point nights from Martin Frk and TJ Tynan, the Ontario Reign (26-9-3-3) secured a 4-3 win on the road over the San Diego Gulls (16-21-2-0) Saturday night at Pechanga Arena. Reign netminder Matt Villalta picked up the victory with 25 saves in the contest, his 16th win of the season.
Defender Austin Strand also picked up two assists for Ontario, while Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored to extend his point streak to a season-high seven games. Ontario continues to hold second place in the Pacific Division after 41 games with a total of 58 points and a 0.707 points percentage.
Ontario took the early lead, scoring the only goal of the first period when Frk netted his 23rd tally of the season at 4:18 from Tynan and Tyler Madden. The Reign outshot San Diego 14-6 in the first 20 minutes of the contest but were unable to strike on three play opportunities.
Anderson-Dolan extended the lead at 10:18 of the second with a goal on a rush off an attempted pass to Aidan Dudas that went off a San Diego player and into the Gulls' net. Assists on the play went to both Strand and Villalta, who was credited with his first helper of the year and the second of his career during the regular season.
San Diego got closer at 16:24 of the middle frame when Bryce Kindopp scored off a rebound in front of the Reign net to make it 2-1.
But before the end of the frame Ontario took their two-goal lead back on Frk's second goal of the night from Tynan and Strand at 18:08. The veteran attacker now has 24 goals on the year which ranks second in the AHL.
The Reign were unable to capitalize on a 5-on-3 power play that began at the end of the second and extended into the third period. After killing the penalties, the Gulls took momentum on a goal by Brent Gates Jr. to make the score 3-2.
With San Diego threatening to tie the game in the latter half of the final frame, Tynan netted his ninth goal of the year on the power play from Frk and defender Jordan Spence to give the Reign the insurance they were seeking and make it a 4-2 game.
A late extra attacker goal by Trevor Carrick at 17:37 of the third once again put the Gulls within striking distance, but time ran out on the home club and Ontario held on for its fifth victory over San Diego this season in six contests.
Tynan's strike was the lone power play goal in the game as Ontario had many chances but finished 1-for-7 on the man-advantage while ending with a perfect 4-for-4 mark on the penalty kill. San Diego goaltender Lukas Dostal turned aside 27 shots in a losing effort for the Gulls.
Chris Hajt
On the swings of momentum during the third period
We don't end up scoring on the 5-on-3 and then they built momentum off of it. Had some opportunities, then had some power plays that continued to create that momentum and ended up scoring a goal at the end there so yeah, holding on a little bit for sure but I liked a lot of our game today on the whole so we'll take two points in a very exciting building, a great place to play against our rivals and an exciting atmosphere, the crowd gets into it. We were able to keep our composure and ultimately get the two points.
On what his team was doing to create a lot of offensive chances
We had a few good couple days of practice talking about d-zone coverage, puck management and we were trying to play a little faster and at moments we did for sure and we were able to establish our forecheck but we were playing against a very good team that had a good lineup tonight and it was an exciting hockey game.
TJ Tynan
On his team hanging on for the win late in the game
Obviously you never want to give up a goal like that 6-on-5, but all the credit goes to Matty V, he kicked all night, he made some huge saves down the stretch and we'll take the two points for sure.
On what Villalta has meant to the team all season
Everything. Even as a forward or a d-man I'm sure for everyone, it's just nice knowing you have a guy back there like that who's just so steady and is always calm and collected. He's played great and he's such a good guy, I'm so happy for him to see him do that well so it's been awesome to see.
On if he's been instructed to shoot more on the power play
Yeah for sure, I mean it's always, if it's there you want me to shoot it but it's been going pretty well. Obviously we struggled for most of the night and Anderson-Dolan made a great screen in front and I saw that and I saw the goalie kind of leave some net on both sides and I decided to shoot, especially that late in the game, the ice was a little choppy...great plays by the other guys and then with Anderson-Dolan, the goalie didn't see it so it's all him.
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