Ontario Reign goaltender Peter Budaj stopped Ben Street on his first breakaway in overtime, but he didn’t stop Street on his second shot leading the San Antonio Rampage to a 3-2 overtime victory. For Ontario it was a hard fought point against a tough Rampage team.
“I thought it was a great hockey game,” said Coach Mike Stothers. “I mean two good teams, you go into overtime it’s 3-on-3 anything can happen. I was happy with the way we played, we played a good hockey game.”
Street ended the game after creating a turnover from Reign defenseman Derek Forbort for his second attempt at a breakaway, after he just missed on his first attempt moments before. Street tried the same move that failed the first time, but it worked the second time as it went under the bar and in on Peter Budaj.
An #AHLOT winner for Ben Street and @sarampage, handing Ontario their first loss of the season #SAvsONT pic.twitter.com/Ptol49z9v8
— AHL (@TheAHL) October 31, 2015
The Reign had to fight back in the third period after being down a goal after a 5-on-3 power play goal by Rampage forward Colin Smith. Smith found a rebound that was left on top of the crease by Budaj and jammed it home. The two man advantage was caused by an ill advised penalty by Ryan Horvat. For Horvat his relief came later in the third when Justin Auger tied the game, taking him off the hook for his costly penalty. Auger who was camped out front of goaltender Calvin Pickard found a loose puck sitting between his legs and tapped it backwards into the net past a sprawling Pickard.
.@justinauger20: Behind the back, between the legs, tie game. #SAvsONT pic.twitter.com/naEf9GnCcC
— AHL (@TheAHL) October 31, 2015
Ontario got on the board first in the 2nd period when Nic Dowd found an open corner and beat Pickard to score his first of the year. For Dowd it was important to get on the scoreboard early in the season.
“Felt good to get my first goal out of the way. Took me almost 10 games to get my first last year,” said Dowd.
San Antonio got on the board when Zach Redmond beat Budaj from behind the goal line. It was started as an innocent play, Budaj made a routine save and at the last second decided to play the puck to defenseman Jeff Schultz. Schultz who was unprepared that Budaj was going to play the puck and not cover it for a whistle mishandled the puck in his feet. The Rampage jumped over the Reign defense and regained control. What seemed like a harmless turn over ended up in the Reign net and it tied the game at one.
Notes:
Michael Mersch led the Reign in shots with six. Mersch now has 32 shots on goal on the season six more than Sean Backman who is second on the Reign in total shots. Peter Budaj allowed three goals on 28 shots. Budaj still continues to have a strong save percentage at .942.
Fowards
Zykov – Dowd – Mersch
Backman – Kempe – Auger
Sabourin – Crescenzi – Samules-Thomas
Brodzinski – Miller – Horvat
Defense
Forbort – Gravel
Ebert – Schultz
MacDermid – LoVerde
Goalie
Budaj