In Ontario’s final home game of the 2022-23 AHL regular season, the Reign suffered a 5-2 loss to the visiting Henderson Silver Knights.
Paired with Bakersfield’s win over Coachella Valley, the Reign fell to sixth in the Pacific Division. They’re locked in that spot with one regular season game remaining and will play either Colorado or Abbotsford in Round One of next week’s Calder Cup Playoffs.
As for Friday’s game, Ontario fell behind in the first period when the Silver Knights capitalized on a defensive zone turnover by the Reign. In the dwindling moments of the first frame, Kings prospect Tyler Madden released a wrist shot following a pass from Lias Andersson, it evened the score with a power play goal.
In the second period, the Reign took their first lead of the game following Andersson uncorking a wrister underneath the glove of the Silver Knights netminder. The play was set up off a Jordan Spence pass made from the bumper position; it ultimately turned into Ontario’s second goal on the man-advantage. However, Henderson answered back before the end of the period by executing on a breakaway opportunity.
A myriad of costly mistakes in the third period saw the game unravel for coach Marco Sturm’s group. Henderson initially retook the lead after both Nate Thompson and Jacob Moverare failed to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. Minutes later, the Silver Knights added to their lead when a rare T.J. Tynan mistake ended up resulting in a Henderson goal. And they later added an empty netter to seal the 5-2 victory.
Reign goaltender Cal Petersen made 21 saves on 25 shots in Friday’s loss.
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