ONTARIO, CA. -- After being away from home for two weeks, the Ontario Reign welcomed back its fans in the best way they could - with a win.
Pheonix Copley finished with 28 saves to hand Ontario its 14th home victory, outscoring the Colorado Eagles 4-1.
Going into tonight’s game, Colorado held the first place spot in the Pacific Division but Ontario trailed close behind in second place, with both teams having 54 points.
With this win the Reign (27-12-1-1; 56 points) take sole possession of first place as Colorado (25-10-1-3; 54 points) falls back.
“They’re (Colorado) a really good hockey team,” Joe Hicketts said in postgame interviews. “I think it kind of brings out the best in us as well so hat’s off - they push us to be our best. We’ve been fortunate in six games now that we’ve come (on) the right side (for) the majority of it, but it’s nice when our team is playing the way we can.”
Cole Guttman has scored in Ontario’s last three games and clearly didn’t plan on ending that streak tonight.
Just 18 seconds into the opening period, Guttman found the back of the net.
And almost seven minutes later he buried the puck in the net once again, providing a comfortable 2-0 lead for the Reign early on.
Andre Lee scored his 16th goal in the second period with help from Samuel Bolduc, but a minute later Danil Gushchin got Colorado on the board.
Back-to-back penalties for Colorado handicapped the Eagles as they suddenly had a fragment of their team with only three skaters on ice, giving Ontario a 5-on-3 advantage.
And Aatu Jämsen would be the one to shoot it home, scoring a power-play goal and ensuring a win for the Reign, along with an updated 5-1 record over the Eagles in the season thus far.
Ontario has had many nail-biting, one-score games this season and when asked how it felt to have and keep a lead tonight, Ontario coach Andrew Lord said:
“I certainly enjoyed it, it was definitely nice. It’s been a ton of close games, a lot of fight back and come-from-behind wins, so yeah it was good - especially against a really dynamic team. They’re (Colorado) elite, they have talent throughout their lineup, they can really make you pay. I think it was really important for us to get a couple goal leads and then it allowed us to check and focus on the details. Obviously we still gave a fair amount up, but it was definitely nice to have a cushion.”
Ontario will host the Abbotsford Canucks (13-22-3-3; 32 points) Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Toyota Arena.
