Reign Recap: Ontario Offense and Villalta Goaltending Shutdown San Jose on Friday

Ontario kicked off their weekend in style, as goaltender Matthew Villalta along with a bevy of Reign goals resulted in a 6-1 victory over the visiting San Jose Barracuda on Friday night.

Defenseman Jordan Spence celebrated his 21st birthday by scoring his fourth goal of the season midway through the first period. It came off a play with the Barracuda netminder screened and was set up by Kings prospect Sammy Helenius. A few minutes later, Alan Quine extended Ontario’s lead to two after finishing off a nifty feed from Taylor Ward.

Villalta stood tall in the middle frame by making 18 of his 34 saves when Ontario was trapped in their own zone much of the period. Sitting on a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes, the Reign offense came in the final period of play — but not before San Jose scored their lone goal of the evening.

Just minutes into the final frame, a short-handed goal by Barracuda forward Jeffrey Viel tightened things up at 2-1. Once the Reign regained their footing, Samuel Fagemo snuck behind the defense, and received a perfect stretch pass from Jacob Moverare, then put it in the back of the net with a backhand shot. Up 3-1 at that point, Moverare collected his fourth goal of the year when he wired the puck into the top corner after a great individual effort from Martin Chromiak, who was credited with an assist. Then, with just under three minutes remaining in regulation, Tyler Madden added an empty netter, followed by another Reign goal via Kim Nousiainen just before the buzzer sounded.

Ontario will be back at it Sunday afternoon against San Diego.

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