Reign Tops Defending Champs, 5-2
AHL Ontario Reign

Reign Tops Defending Champs, 5-2

Published on October 26, 2025 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release


The Ontario Reign (4-1-1-0) defeated the Abbotsford Canucks (2-4-0-0) Sunday afternoon by a final score of 5-2 in front of 3,500 fans at Abbotsford Centre. The Reign will be in Henderson on Tuesday, Oct. 29th taking on the Silver Knights at 7 p.m.

After falling behind 1-0 midway through the first period Ontario would strike with four unanswered goals courtesy of Cole Guttman, Taylor Ward, Samuel Bolduc, and Francesco Pinelli to take a 4-1 lead through 40 minutes. Abbotsford made it a two-goal game just 2:41 into the third before Jared Wright scored on an empty-net with 28 seconds left to cap off the victory.

Ontario led 2-1 after the first period outshooting Abbotsford 11-4. Vilmer Alriksson gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead from Jimmy Schuldt and Tom Willander at 11:14. From the left point Schuldt found Alriksson back door at the right side of the crease for a deflection into the net. Cole Gutmann (1st) 4:21 later tied the game at 1-1 from Akil Thomas and Kirill Kirsanov. Guttman had an initial shot in the high slot that got swept to the left half-wall by goaltender Jiri Patera. Kirsanov sent it behind the net for Thomas who fed Guttman at the left circle where he sent a quick shot over the glove of Patera. Taylor Ward (3rd) gave Ontario the lead just 2:10 later on a setup from Glenn Gawdin. From the top of the zone Gawdin sent a shot towards the cage that got blocked and found Ward below the left face-off dot where he scooped it past the blocker of Patera.

The Reign held a 4-1 lead through 40 minutes of play outshooting the Canucks 13-3 in the middle frame. Samuel Bolduc (3rd) found the back of the net on the power-play at 5:11 from Ward and Andre Lee giving Ontario a 3-1 lead. From the right side of the crease Lee spun the puck to Ward in the left circle. Ward fed Bolduc at the center point where he blasted a one-timer towards the cage that hit Patera and then hopped above the head of the netminder into the net. Ontario killed off 75 seconds of a 5-on-3 power-play for Abbotsford and 1:49 later Francesco Pinelli (2nd) increased the lead to 4-1 from Kirsanov and Guttman. From the left half-wall Guttman fed Kirsanov at the left point. From there he slid it across for Pinelli at the top of the blue line. He let a long-range wrist shot go that pinballed by Patera.

Sawyer Mynio made it a two-goal game with a one-timer from the top of the left circle just 2:41 into the third period from Chase Wouters and Dino Kambeitz. Jared Wright (1st) sealed the game away scoring on the empty net with 28 seconds left in regulation from Thomas for a 5-2 win.

Erik Portillo made 13 saves on 15 shots for the win while Juri Patera suffered the loss making 26 saves on 30 shots.

Postgame reactions from Andrew Lord and Taylor Ward.

Lord

Shutting things down defensively

Yeah, the first 40 was our best this season. For sure. Everyone was skating. Puck management was there. I thought we made some more plays tonight, which was good to see. I thought we were direct enough as the game went along and got got to the goalie's eyes, which was great. So, you know, third, we took our foot off the gas a little bit, but all in all, a good win and a good weekend.

Handling Abbotsford's third period push

Yeah, good enough. Obviously, you want to stay relentless the whole time, but little bit of human nature probably, and credit to them, you know, defending chance for a reason, they forecheck really hard, and they get in and, you know, they went east west, they're buying the net, and then found the D on the backside, which was, you know, difficult to defend, but I thought, you know, down the stretch, late that last five, six minutes, we manage it pretty well. Didn't give up too much. So good way to close it.

Scoring four unanswered goals

Yeah, even, even, you know, the goal against, I thought, you know, maybe against the run of the play a little bit. No big deal. I thought we were really solid out of the gates, you know, I thought all four lines contributed Well, playing the right way. I thought our D was solid to obviously always good goal tending too. So, yeah, I was a, you know, we were hard to play against tonight. That's hopefully gonna be our identity, night in and night out.

Killing off a 5-on-3 in the second period

Yeah, that's a that's a big turning point. We had 3d man out there too, with hixie getting out of the box from the four on three situation. So for them to do it sort of with without our normal two forwards out there made it even harder. But yeah, the guys laid it on the line. I would I probably haven't counted it up yet, but I would say that was probably our most blocked shots of the year, and especially in that sequence. So impressive from an individual standpoint.

Cole Guttman getting his first goal of the season

Yeah, he's been getting better every day, getting more comfortable with his line mates, with the systems. Obviously, Everything's new. It's taking a little bit of time, but you can see now he's really starting to go, moving his feet, being dynamic. Great play from Thomas to him in the low slot there on that first one, that was a pretty goal, and he was close on a couple others.

Taylor Ward's weekend performance

Yeah, he's been rock solid in all three zones, straight along the walls, in our own zone, defends, well, you know, out late game situations, five on six, and then offensively, the shots obviously lethal. You know, he's got a great release, and he's big and heavy down below the topsail circle, so he's doing a lot for us. Really good leader as well.

Carrying success into next weekend

eah, just stay consistent. Be pros about it. We got to, you know, stick to our process. Get better every day, all the cliches. And you know, Wednesday's gonna be a tough game.

Starting off five-game road trip with a pair of wins

Yeah, I thought it was really good both games, we got the lead, and then we we closed it out there in the third period in both games, which is really good to see, especially early on in the season and on the road. So yeah, really happy with the first couple on the road, and now we're off to Vegas.

On personal success and playing close to home

Yeah, it's always fun coming back here. I had some family in the stands, and it's always good coming back to BC. So, yeah, it's been good start so far. And just gonna try to keep it rolling.

Holding off Abbotsford's third period push

Yeah I mean, we knew they were going to come out hard in the third period, which they did, and credit to them, they came out really hard in the first three four minutes and scored one. But I think that woke us up a little bit. And, you know, we just got back to our game and playing a bit simple and a bit stronger, and we were able to close it out again. So all good things.

Looking at the penalty kill

Absolutely our kill was great today. Our D men were really, really good today, I thought. And we had, yeah, you're right. I don't know, four or five, six block shops, block shots on that PK. So that's huge. That's just guys buying in, and guys being team guys and sacrificing their bodies, and that's what we need, and we got it tonight and that's why we won.

On his goal

Yeah, the puck got to me quick there, and I didn't get a lot of lot of wood on it, but it felt like the puck took forever to get to the net. But just lucky, it went in, and we'll take it, I guess.

Carrying momentum into next week

I think we just learned from what we did good here this weekend, and make a couple corrections. And, you know, I think for the most part, we did, we played some some good road hockey. So just, you know, learn from that and put that in the bank and carry it forward.

Check out the Ontario Reign Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Hockey League Stories from October 26, 2025


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.

OurSports Central