Reign battle Condors in 6-3 victory
· Yahoo Sports
ONTARIO, CA. -- The Ontario Reign win back-to-back games with a 6-3 hard fought victory over the Bakersfield Condors on Saturday night at Toyota Arena.
After shutting out Coachella Valley 7-0 on Wednesday, the Reign have scored 13 goals in their last two games.
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After a long stretch of being away for the past 17 days, going 3-3 in that time, competing on home ice for the first time in over two weeks meant that Ontario would hopefully put on a good show, which they did.
When asked about the Reign’s offense the past two games, Kenny Connors said:
“I think we’re defending better, (it) starts in our own zone. We’re getting the puck out cleaner and it’s leading to better odd-man rushes or cleaner rushes and we’re really trying to get to the middle more in the (offensive) zone.”
The Reign fought - literally and figuratively - for this win, as it was a vicious battle with Ontario only having five games remaining in the regular season.
Since clinching a spot in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs on March 27 after beating the Tucson Roadrunners 3-2, the Reign have gone 3-1.
The Reign are currently in first place in the AHL Pacific Division at 43-19-3-2 and 91 points. The Colorado Eagles stand only one point back in second place with a 40-17-5-5 record.
Roby Järventie opened the scoring early for Bakersfield (34-22-9-1) with a power-play goal 1:47 into the first period.
The players had been chirpy and played rough from start to finish, but a fight between Jacob Doty and Sam Poulin halfway through the opening period would soon increase the momentum of the game.
The gloves came off and Doty and Poulin threw punches back and forth as blood splattered onto the ice.
Poulin’s nose would soon be taped up and the game would end with 16 total penalties.
“(Doty’s been) doing that for us all year long,” Connors said. “And we didn’t really come out the way we wanted to or the way we should and (Doty) stepped up. That was an unbelievable fight, so there’s no way that we weren’t gonna be ready to go after that.”
Both Doty and Poulin received five-minute fighting penalties and just 21 seconds later, Glenn Gawdin tied the game with help from Joe Hicketts and Cole Guttman.
Poulin would score within the last minute of the first to hand Bakersfield the 2-1 lead going into the second period.
Andre Lee scored a power-play goal for his 26th goal of the season, with assists from Francesco Pinelli and Connors.
James Hamblin would score the Condors’ last goal of the night with 32 minutes remaining in the game.
Jack Highes’ short-handed goal, two goals from Nikita Alexandrov and Aatu Jämsen’s score would give the Reign a 6-3 victory.
Ontario coach Andrew Lord said this game had a playoff feel with the animosity and rivalry between the teams.
Erik Portillo finished with 20 saves while Ontario ended the night with 30 shots on goal, going 1-for-7 on the power play.
“I think the goaltending (has) been so solid and consistent for most of the year,” Lord said. “It’s just the norm now, where a big save - maybe you don’t even realize it’s that big of a save. But (Portillo) was excellent, a couple of the breakaways in particular. Our goaltending - we couldn’t be more fortunate.”
Ontario will host Colorado at Toyota Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m.