ONTARIO, Calif., -- The Ontario Reign were unable to find the back of the net as they were shutout by the Iowa Wild 5-0 at Toyota Arena on Friday night.
Iowa’s goalie, Samuel Hlavaj had 34 saves on the night, not allowing the puck to get past him once.
“We had holes in our game today that they took advantage of,” defender Luke Rowe said in postgame interviews. “When passing (is) not great and you’re getting stretched out in the d-zone, you’re going to give a good, skilled, offensive group opportunities and they took advantage of it.”
The game had a slow first period - for Ontario that is - not for Iowa. The Reign had 11 shots on goal, but nothing to show for it as they remained scoreless at the end of the first.
The Wild on the other hand, came out strong and didn’t look like a team with 19 losses.
Caedan Bankier scored Iowa’s first goal 2:48 into the opening period, and Graeme Clarke scored back-to-back goals to put the Wild up 3-0.
The Reign haven’t faced the Wild since the 2019-20 season, making the matchup a bit unfamiliar.
Rowe said they did their homework on the Wild and weren't surprised by anything tonight, rather they just weren't on their A-game.
There was only one penalty in the game, a double minor power play for Ontario. However, they weren’t able to capitalize on the advantage over the Wild.
Coach Marco Sturm said it was frustrating not scoring early on with opportunities such as the power play.
Erik Portillo took over for Pheonix Copley in the second period, and stayed in at goalie for the remainder of the game.
Carson Lambos added another goal for the Wild with a minute remaining in the second period.
“They just played better than us,” coach Sturm said. “They played smarter than us. Their goaltending was better than our goalies, special teams were better than our special teams. And as a team, they deserved a 5-0 game.”
The Wild continued to pile it on with Adam Raska scoring in the third, creating a final score of 5-0.
“Everyday you have to perform, everyday you have to show up,” coach Sturm said. “And everyday you have to play the right way. And today we didn’t.”
The Reign fall to 20-10-0-1 but remain in second place in the AHL Pacific Division.
Ontario will face Iowa again on Sunday at Toyota Arena at 3 p.m.