Kurtis MacDermid saw his opening. There was a screen in front from defenseman Vincent LoVerde and he had an open lane to shoot. MacDermid took his chance from the point and his shot hit San Jose Barracuda goaltender Aaron Dell and still found it’s way past him for his first career AHL goal.
“I saw [Loverde] going through there and I rolled up top and [Horvat] made a good pass to me and I just wanted it to get through to the net,” said MacDermid. “I think it found it’s way to the back of the net.”
It wasn’t the most conventional goal that you’ll see as MacDermid’s defensive partner provided the screen for the goal, something that Reign Head Coach Mike Stothers thought worked out but could be dangerous.
“It’s not that we drew it up that we have one defenseman taking the point shot and the other defenseman, his partner, is the actual net front presence providing the screen,” said Stothers “It’s a good thing we scored on that one, because it could have been a potential problem.”
.@ontarioreign lead @sjbarracuda 2-0 after 1st on goals by Kurtis MacDermid & Sean Backman #AHL #SJvsONT pic.twitter.com/a5hEF4xnm8
— ieProSports (@ieProSports) November 12, 2015
Sean Backman had the Reign’s second goal after receiving a pass from Adrian Kempe in the slot. The play started after Justin Auger won a puck battle on the boards allow Kempe to streak in and grab the loose puck and cut towards the net. Kempe who had the lane to shoot himself found Backman off to his right with the better angle and dished it off to the side.
Sean Backman's goal gave @ontarioreign 2-0 lead over @sjbarracuda in 1st #AHL #SJvsONT pic.twitter.com/Rf9fTlqtvr
— ieProSports (@ieProSports) November 12, 2015
The Barracuda got back within one after Jeremy Langlois cut in beating MacDermid before firing a shot across the grain on Reign goaltender Peter Budaj beating him within the post.
With 3:05 left in the game the Reign took consecutive penalties leading to a five-on-three power play for the Barracuda. First a too many men call started it and then Mersch high-sticked Bryan Lerg while killing the first penalty. The Reign weathered the storm and killed the 1:19 of two man advantage time.
Ontario had to juggle their lines all night due to a morning skate injury to forward Paul Bissonnette. With Bissonnette, who has missed a couple games this season already to injury, out of the lineup it left the Reign short one forward. With no extra forward available to step into the lineup the Reign dressed seven defenseman and at times had to use Kevin Raine as a winger. Michael Mersch was the primary forward used to fill the gap left by Bissonnette.
Notes: Nic Dowd gets the heavy lifting when it comes to important faceoffs in the game, including a key win with 3.5 seconds left in the second period. His all around game has him playing both penalty killing and power play situations. While the Reign were two men short, Stothers stuck with Andrew Crescenzi, Auger, and Dowd as his forwards during the kill, on defense LoVerde and Schultz killed the time. Mersch led with six shots on goal during the game.
Forwards
Mersch – Dowd – Zykov
Auger – Kempe – Backman
OPEN – Crescenzi – Brodzinski
Horvat – Sabourin – Samuels-Thomas
Defenseman
Gravel – Raine
MacDermid – Schultz
Leslie – Loverde
Ebert
Goaltender
Budaj
