Martin Chromiak was the hero Saturday evening in San Diego, helping Ontario down the Gulls 4-3 in overtime.
The rookie forward scored his second goal of the night with less than one minute remaining in overtime to secure the road victory.
Chromiak
19 points (12G, 7A) in 20 GP— The Mayor | Team MM (@mayorNHL) February 19, 2023
Earlier, just before the halfway mark of the first period, Chromiak opened the scoring on a breakaway. After waiting out the San Diego netminder, he flipped it into the open cage. Jack Becker, recently signed to a PTO by the Reign, earned his first career AHL point with an assist on Chromiak’s goal. Six minutes later, the Gulls evened the score after a deflected shot beat Matthew Villalta. In the final minutes of the period, Nikita Pavlychev took a hit up high, drawing a penalty, and Samuel Helenius came to his defense. On the ensuing man-advantage, Lias Andersson tipped in a pass from Tyler Madden to retake the lead.
In the second stanza, Ontario failed to generate anything offensively, as they were outshot 14-3, and were stuck in their own zone often. As a result, the Gulls knotted the game at two after they redirected another one past Villalta.
Similar to the middle period, the Reign struggled, and they paid the price. Halfway through the third period, San Diego took their first lead of the night with a seeing eye wrister. As time dwindled down, the Reign began to catch some steam and eventually cashed in. With 3:28 left to play in regulation, Andersson pounced on a loose rebound for his second of the night, sending the game into overtime.
With less than a minute left into the overtime period, the Slovakian native, Chromiak, wristed one into the back of the net to win the game.
Netminder, Villalta, pushed aside 27 shots en route to his 10th win of the year.
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