ONTARIO, Calif. -- Jeff Malott earned two points as his goal and assist aided in Ontario Reign’s first victory of the new year, defeating the San Diego Gulls 4-1 Friday night at Toyota Arena.
This fourth meeting of the season between Ontario and San Diego comes a week after a tough shootout loss by the Reign. Tonight’s win gives the Reign a 3-0-0-1 record against the Gulls in the SoCal Series this season.
“It was nice to get them back,” Jack Studnicka said in postgame interviews. “We’ve been winning a lot of games lately so for them to beat us like they did last week…it was nice to get back at them.”
The Reign had various good looks at the net during the opening period, but with their 16 shots on goal came 16 saves from San Diego’s goalie, Oscar Dansk - leaving period one scoreless.
Three minutes into the second period, Malott found the back of the net for his 6th goal of the season as Caleb Jones and Reilly Walsh were credited with assists.
With just under four minutes left to play in period two, Jan Myšák put the Gulls on board, tying the game 1-1.
Studnicka scored a power-play goal 2:14 into the third period, giving the Reign a 2-1 lead.
And once Ontario took the lead in the third, they never looked back.
When asked about the conversations that were had during intermission before the third period, Studnicka said the team talked about keeping it simple and sticking to their game plan.
With help from Malott and Caleb Jones, Samuel Fagemo scored his 17th goal of the season 11:28 into the third.
Francesco Pinelli finished the game off with his 9th goal of the season and his 5th goal in the last four games.
“They (San Diego) played well,” coach Marco Sturm said. “We just played better.”
Ontario stands at second place in the AHL Pacific Division with a 19-8-0-1 record and 39 points.
The Reign will be back at Toyota Arena tomorrow night as they face the Coachella Valley Firebirds at 6 p.m.