The San Antonio Rampage visited the Ontario Reign Wednesday night in their first meeting since October 30. Last month, The Reign beat the Rampage 4-2 behind two goals by veteran Sean Backman. Wednesday, the Rampage got their revenge in a big way, winning 5-1.
Jack Campbell saw his first full-game action since the Reign home opener and made 22 saves on the night. While a five on the board never looks good for a goaltender, this one wasn’t Campbell. Ontario allowed easy penetration on more than a few occasions and the Rampage capitalized multiple times. The first goal of the game scored by San Antonio forward Troy Bourke was a wide open chance from the low slot. Campbell spoke with the media regarding the loss and his return to action after the game.
On tonight’s game:
“It was nice to play a game. It felt kind of like a new season, it has been a little bit. Not the result we wanted. We can all play a little better.”
On his game:
“I could have made a couple more saves. I liked the details in my game but I’m a winner and I want to win so that’s all that matters.”
The Reign bolstered the best penalty kill in the league last year but have struggled thus far, ranking in the bottom three. Key personnel changes including Nic Dowd and Kevin Gravel, and the overall number of penalties they take have both factored in. Regardless, the Reign will make the game more difficult if they cant find the line between imposing physical play and taking 54 minutes in penalties. Head Coach Mike Stothers spoke about the numerous penalties his team took.
The mid-week contest was punctuated by triple-digit number of penalty minutes with all the calls combined. 7 majors and 4 game misconducts later the teams served over 101 minutes of penalties.
Kurtis MacDermid and Andrew Crescenzi both detonated bone-crunching hits on San Antonio players during the game, one leading to a fight. Both videos are worth seeking out, as both were thunderous hits that belong on the highlight reel.
HIT Alert: Kurtis MacDermid delivers the BOOM to the @sarampage pic.twitter.com/0c7RsZvsRF
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) November 10, 2016
On the penalty calls:
“Took a couple ill-advised penalties. You can’t go down the path that it’s the refereeing. Some of them, there were a couple of bad ones.”
Stothers explained that Sam Herr’s roughing infraction at the end of the 2nd period was one of the bad ones. San Antonio capitalized on the ensuing power play and never looked back. They grabbed the 2-1 lead with less than 40 seconds left in the period.
Rampage player Garry Nunn scored just 2 minutes into the third period, and effectively sealed the game. The Reign had a chance or two but never anything that resembled a 4-goal comeback effort.
On lacking jump down the stretch:
“We had our opportunities too. We had a power play and a five-on-three, but we didn’t even register a shot. We had some guys that had zero shots that were playing power play and are supposed to be offensive catalysts. You get what you deserve. They had more shots on the penalty kill than we did on the power play.”
The Reign are in the midst of three game skid and have lost six of their last 7 games. They travel to the mid-west this weekend for some games that could prove to be pivotal once the schedule starts to thicken later in the year. Ontario will face the Iowa Wild (Minnesota Wild) and the Rockford Ice Hogs (Chicago Blackhawks).
Line Combinations:
Forwards
Mersch – Hensick – Backman
Brodzinski – Amadio – Kempe
Sutter – Bjorkstrand – Auger
Herr – Crescenzi – Latta
Defense
LaDue – MacDermid
LoVerde – Leslie
Lintuniemi – Trotman
