Reign Leave Bakersfield behind in Third Period
AHL Ontario Reign

Reign Leave Bakersfield behind in Third Period

Published on March 2, 2026 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release


The Ontario Reign (35-16-1-1) defeated the Bakersfield Condors (28-17-8-1) Sunday by a final score of 4-2 in in front of 9,026 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will host the Tucson Roadrunners Wednesday at 7 p.m. PST.

Aatu Jämsen scored 91 seconds into the game as the score was even at 1-1 through 20 minutes of play while Jared Wright scored in the second period as the score was even at 2-2 through 40 minutes. Koehn Ziemmer provided the eventual game winner which came on the power-play 1;47 into the third period as Cole Guttman provided a late empty net score to secure the win as the Reign won their fourth consecutive contest.

The score was tied at 1-1 through the opening 20 minutes of play with Ontario outshooting Bakersfield 13-8. Aatu Jämsen (15th) gave the Reign a 1-0 lead just 91 seconds into the game on a highlight reel score. Jämsen intercepted the puck in the right circle and started towards the net all alone. He got to the crease and slid a backhander past the left leg of Pickard. The Condors went 1-for-2 on the power-play in the frame as Atro Leppanen (8th) tied the game on their first man advantage at 7:58 on a shot from the point.

Each team got on the board in the second period as the score was all even at 2-2 through 40 minutes of play. Early in the period the Reign had a five-on-three for 48 seconds but were unable to convert. Kaleb Lawrence and Riley Stillman dropped the gloves 2:44 into the frame while Lawrence received an extra two-minute minor for slashing while Jacob Doty was assessed a 10-minute misconduct for continuing altercation. Jared Wright (15th) put the Reign back out in front with 7:37 to go in the period from Jack Millar and Aatu Jämsen. From the left-wing wall Jämsen worked the puck across the zone where Millar sent a shot from the right-wing boards where Wright got the final touch at the goal line. Josh Samanski tied the game up with 40.2 seconds to go in the frame sending a wrist shot from the high slot over the glove of Pheonix Copley.

Just 1:22 into the third period the Reign headed on the power-play and it took Koehn Ziemmer (7th) just 25 seconds into the man advantage to light the lamp from Logan Brown and Samuel Bolduc to give the Reign a 3-2 lead. From the top of the left circle Brown fed Ziemmer below the circle sent a low wrist shot past the far leg of Pickard. Cole Guttman (19th) provided the insurance tally with an empty net score with 27 seconds left from Andre Lee and Joe Hicketts securing the 4-2 win.

Phoenix Copley made 22 saves on 24 shots in the win while Calvin Pickard suffered the loss making 24 saves on 27 shots. Both teams went 1-for-5 on the power-play.

Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord and Jared Wright.

Lord

On tonight's win and it feeling like a playoff game

You can tell the pace is picking up. Guys are laying on the line a little bit more on both teams. Their lineup right now is very good. I thought it was a terrific hockey game. Liked our start a lot. Obviously, the penalty, their power play goal, got them going a bit to the latter part of the first. Thought the second was solid until the last couple minutes, and then I thought the third was a good team period. Give them credit, very good team. They've had a much harder week than us. I thought, they gave us all they had so good to find a way to win it. We'll move on, now a busy schedule for us.

Wright

On not playing a game since last Sunday

I think it was good just to take care of our bodies. I think it took a little bit for everyone to kind of get into it. We had a really good start. But just for me personally, it felt like it took a little bit for my engine to get going. I thought it was a great team win for us, and they played really hard, and I felt like it was like a playoff style game, and we were able to find a way to win there, which was nice.

On the mindset going into tonight

I think we just wanted to have a really good start and make them just defend and make their D turn. We know that when we do that, when we can force turnovers, we're going to have a good chance of winning games.

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American Hockey League Stories from March 2, 2026


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