AHL Ontario Reign

Thomas, Fagemo Each Score Two in Win over San Jose

Published on March 30, 2022 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Ontario Reign News Release


Forwards Akil Thomas and Samuel Fagemo each scored twice as the Ontario Reign (36-14-4-3) defeated the San Jose Barracuda (20-34-2-2) for the fifth time during the 2021-22 regular season by a 6-3 score on Wednesday morning at the SAP Center. Thomas also added an assist and led the team with three points in the win, while centers Jaret Anderson-Dolan and TJ Tynan each posted two assists.

Goaltender Matt Villalta started for Ontario for the fifth straight game and stopped 28 shots to pick up his 24th victory of the season. Ontario continues to hold second place in the AHL's Pacific Division with a points percentage of 0.693.

Just 4:36 into the opening period, Thomas scored his second goal in Ontario's last three games off a 3-on-1 rush. Forward Brett Sutter brought the puck into the zone and put a shot on net that was stopped, but the rebound landed in the crease for Thomas, who banged it in to make it 1-0.

Later in the frame, Fagemo extended the lead to 2-0 with his first tally of the day at 12:45. After fanning on an initial chance in the low slot, Fagemo stuck with the play and eventually slapped at a rebound with his backhand past the right leg of goaltender Alex Stalock.

San Jose got on the board for the first time during the morning matchup on a rebound at 15:50 of the first that gave Jasper Weatherby his fourth of the season for the Cuda to make it 2-1.

Thomas netted his second goal of the morning in the final minute of the first period, scoring on the power play off a setup by Anderson-Dolan with 57 seconds to play in the frame. Tynan recorded the second assist on the play, his second helper of the period and his league-leading 70th assist of the season. Tynan also leads the AHL in scoring, totaling 83 points in 51 games.

Then Fagemo extended the lead to three for the Reign just 90 seconds into the middle period, scoring his second of the game and 23rd of the season with a shot off on a 2-on-1 with Taylor Ward.

At 8:33 of the second, just 11 seconds after Vladimir Tkachev was called for slashing, forward Nikita Pavlychev got control of the puck off a faceoff and took it the length of the ice to score his second AHL goal of the season and make it 5-1. The shorthanded tally came with assists by Thomas and defender Thomas Hickey.

The Barracuda answered quickly on a Joachim Blichfeld power play goal just after Pavlychev's strike at 10:41 to make it a 5-2 game.

But it took just 39 seconds for Ontario to score in the third period, netting its sixth goal of the day when Dudas secured a loose puck in the slot before firing a wrist shot to the top left corner of the net.

Evan Weinger capped off the scoring with a final goal for San Jose at 5:27 of the third, but the Barracuda were unable to draw any closer in the final minutes of the game.

The Reign had a 33-31 edge in shots on goal Wednesday, that started with an 18-6 advantage in the first 20 minutes of the contest. Stalock stopped 27 shots for the home team in a losing effort, while both teams found success on the power play with Ontario going 1-for-2 and San Jose ending at 1-for-5.

Chris Hajt

On his team's effort in a game that began in the morning

That's the important thing, starting on time and having a 10 a.m. game, this is our second one this year so it's different, it's something that I don't know if you can ever get used to, but it was neat. It was nice to start with the lead and play with the lead and just build on it. A lot of really good things, I really liked our first period, 18 shots I believe, and we really had a mindset where we wanted to play fast through the neutral zone and make sure that we establish our forecheck and our identity so we're happy with our tracking coming back as well when we didn't have the puck and we did a lot of really good things and we've got to build off of that.

On the play of Akil Thomas, who led the team with three points (1-2=3)

Some really nice goals and he has a great shot and he's able to use it. He's getting the bounces for it right now, but he's continuing to put himself in those situations where he's getting opportunities. Even when it wasn't going in, he was putting himself in those shooting opportunities to get scoring chances and that's all you can ask for. Eventually they'll go in and have that patience or confidence that it will but also pushing the envelope and he's been working pretty hard.

On the debut of forward Samuel Helenius, who joined the team this week

Very effective. He's a good player, you can tell he has good hockey sense for a kid coming over just a few days ago and being able to adapt to systems and different things, he ultimately played hockey. He was the center iceman and put himself in good positions to support pucks and was aggressive and obviously a big long body, that whole line in general played very hard, they were physical, Samuel fit right into that and did a nice job so I'm happy for him for his first game.

Aidan Dudas

On what it's like to play in a morning game

It's different. It's kind of nice just to wake up and play, you don't have the whole day to think about it. Obviously it's tough, it's not something we're used to but I thought we handled it pretty well and started off really well.

On how he felt in the game

I felt good and I think my linemates were really good as well and we created a lot of turnovers together and I think all-in-all I did feel good.

On playing on the same line as Anderson-Dolan

I really enjoy playing with JAD, he's a great player, he's hard on pucks, he's hard on the forecheck and he makes the right play every time so he's a great player and it's fun.

On the way the team needs to play down the stretch

I think the focus is really just playing the same way. We know we're a great team and I think when we play direct, play behind teams and start off that way then our rush game opens up and we're a pretty dangerous team off the rush, we're dangerous in the cycle and I think we just have to keep playing that same way.

The Reign return to Ontario for a two-game weekend series with the Colorado Eagles at Toyota Arena beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m. PST.

Check out the Ontario Reign Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from March 30, 2022


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