Ontario’s special teams continued to struggle Friday, as they fell 4-0 to Coachella on the same night that Kings prospect Alex Laferriere made his AHL debut.
The Reign are now a combined 0-for-10 on the man-advantage in their past two games, after missing out on six opportunities against the Firebirds.
Coachella got right after it early on, when they opened the scoring just two minutes into the first period. The goal came via a shot deflected off of Laferriere’s skate that went beneath Petersen, giving the visiting team a quick 1-0 lead. Moments later, the Firebirds added to their lead with a shot from the right circle. These two goals came on Coachella’s first two shots of the evening. From that point foward, Ontario started to find their game. They created a few good offensive chances and Cal Petersen was excellent for the balance of the first period.
In the middle frame, neither side was able to find the back of the net. Ontario missed on multiple chances, including a four-minute power play after Taylor Ward was high sticked. Unfortunately for coach Marco Sturm, the Reign simply could not figure out a way to get one past the Firebird netminder.
Entering the third period, Ontario shuffled their lines a bit, including moving Laferriere from the fourth line up to playing with T.J. Tynan and Lias Andersson. The move seemed to work, as it gave them a little bit of jump. Still, though, they couldn’t cut into Coachella’s lead. Instead, the Firebirds eventually extended their lead with two goals of their own, one coming on the power play.
Petersen made 23 saves on 27 shots in Friday’s loss.
Alex Laferriere on his new No. 28 — I used to be 14 growing up and in the USHL, so I like to say it's double 14, which is a nice way to look at it.
— The Mayor | Team MM (@mayorNHL) April 1, 2023
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