Reign Use Trio of Early Goals to Down San Diego

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AHL Ontario Reign

Reign Use Trio of Early Goals to Down San Diego

April 17, 2025 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release


A three-goal outburst in the first period powered the Ontario Reign (42-24-3-1) to a 4-2 win over the Colorado Eagles (42-20-5-3) on Wednesday night at Toyota Arena.

Samuel Fagemo scored two of those three in the opening frame, while Martin Chromiak found the back of the net for the second straight contest and Pheonix Copley earned the win in goal with 24 saves.

Chromiak put the Reign ahead five minutes in with a burst of speed in the offensive zone and quick release wrister that beat netminder Trent Miner to make it 1-0 in favor of Ontario. Glenn Gawdin freed Chromiak up for the rush with the primary helper on a pass through center ice, while Charles Hudon recorded the second assist on the play for his team-leading 63rd point of the year.

Ontario increased their lead before the end of the first with back-to-back tallies by Fagemo, who scored at 6:58 to make it 2-0 and again at 14:49 to put the Reign up by three. Both of his strikes were assisted by linemates Jack Studnicka and Andre Lee. Fagemo is now up to 29 goals on the season which leads the team and ranks as the eighth-most in the AHL.

The Eagles had a flurry of chances in Ontario's end to begin the third, but the Reign took the momentum back when Kaleb Lawrence powered his way into the Colorado zone and let a wrist shot go that made its way to the top right corner of the net for his fourth goal of the year.

Lawrence's goal was assisted by Jared Wright and Otto Salin, who both picked up the first points of their AHL careers.

Colorado got back within two goals in the third when defender Jacob MacDonald netted a pair of tallies at 8:09 and 13:03, setting the single-season record for most goals by a defenseman in AHL history (31).

But the Reign were able to hold on late and defeat the Eagles for a third straight time to even the season series at four games apiece. Neither team was able to score on the power play during the contest, with Ontario ending at 0-for-4 while Colorado finished 0-for-2. Miner stopped a total of 17 shots in a losing effort between the pipes for the Eagles.

Postgame reactions from Chromiak, forward Koehn Ziemmer and head coach Marco Sturm are below -

Martin Chromiak

On beating Colorado for the third straight time

I think it's great. I think when we stick with our game and we play the structure game, have a good neutral zone, stick with the details, I think we can beat anyone, even the top team three times in a row. I think that gives us good confidence towards the playoffs. We can win against anyone.

On the confidence he's playing with

I feel very comfortable right now. I think right now, especially when I play with the older guys, they help me. Even if I make a mistake, they're always behind me. They're trying to help me, which I really appreciate. I think it's good chemistry between us three. I just hope we keep going like we have the last couple weeks.

On how Marco has helped him this season

He's helped me a lot. Especially right now towards the end of the season, he trusts me more. I really appreciate it when he puts me on the ice when we are winning or when we are losing, we need to score the last goal, or we have to control the lead. So I think that also gives me a lot of confidence that I see that coaches trust me.

On seeing the younger guys join the team

It's nice when we have a lot of guys on the team. The new guys are coming in, young players. I think we have an older group of guys this year. I think it's nice to have some young guys with our team. I know I'm not the oldest guy, but I've been in this league for a few years so I'm trying to help them. When I came here, the older guys helped me.

Marco Sturm

On winning these types of games before playoffs

I think they're very important. You want to go into the playoffs with the right mind and right kind of flow, the way we want to play. It's been pretty solid. There were some small little hiccups down the stretch but overall, I can't complain. If you look today, without Jones, Ward, and even Malott, I give my guys a lot of credit to play a good enough game to win the hockey game.

On comparing this season to last year

We'll see. I think last year, the only difference was that we pretty much had the same lineup every night. I feel like this time, we always kind of miss a piece. With the college kids coming in, try to give them a look. So there's a lot of movement. I feel like maybe that's why it feels a little different.

On the play of Angus Booth, who returned from injury on Saturday

I give him a lot of credit. Who would have thought that he would make that big of a jump. For us, he's like our Mikey Anderson. He gets stuff done and we missed him a lot, we really did. It's definitely nice to have him back.

The Reign are back in action on Friday night when they host the San Diego Gulls at 7 p.m. inside Toyota Arena.

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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.

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