The Ontario Reign (8-6-1-0) fell to the San Jose Barracuda (7-5-1-1) Saturday night by a final score of 4-3 in front of 4,200 fans at Tech CU Arena. The Reign will host the Bakersfield Condors on Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. (PST).
After falling behind 2-0 after the first period of play the Reign scored three straight power-play goals, a season high, capturing a 3-2 lead in the early half of the third period as Martin Chromiak scored in the second before Andree Lee potted two scores. The Barracuda tied the game back up with 6:26 remaining after Pheonix Copley made a highlight reel stop but upon video review they determined the puck had already crossed the goal line by the time he caught it. Just 2:27 later the Barracuda would secure the 4-3 victory as the Reign dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season.
The Barracuda led 2-0 through the first 20 minutes of play. Lucas Carlsson stretched his goal streak to three games from Kasper Halttunen and Pavol Regenda at 6:08 making it 1-0. Carlsson placed a shot into the top left corner from the left circle. With 1:52 remaining in the frame Fillip Bystedt snapped a 10-game goal less drought stretching the lead to a pair from Quentin Musty and Luca Cagnoni. From behind the net Musty fed Bystedt inside the right circle where he sent a shot upstairs over Copley.
Ontario cut the deficit down to one in the second period trailing 2-1 through 40 minutes of play. Martin Chromiak (6th) potted his team leading fourth goal power-play score from Aatu Jämsen and Akil Thomas at 13:14. From the right face-off dot Thomas fed Jämsen at the goal line. From there Jämsen went to the far face-off dot where Chromiak sent a shot into the top right corner over the glove of Skarek. The Reign outshot the Barracuda 10-7 while they converted on their lone power-play in the frame and went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Andre Lee (4th, 5th) snapped a nine-game goal less drought scoring a pair of power-play goals during the front half of the third period in a span of 4:05 tying the game at 3-3. His first came 2:58 into the period from Glenn Gawdin and Kenny Connors. From behind the net Connors fed Gawdin outside the left circle. From there Lee got a pass from Gawdin at the net front. Lee took the puck behind the net and sent it off the backside of Skarek into the net. Then at 7:03 Lee tipped a shot home from the right side of the crease on a shot from Gawdin at the left face-off dot as he received the puck from Cole Guttman at the right circle. With 6:26 left in the contest Pheonix Copley made an unbelievable save on Luca Cagnoni but after video review they would determine that the puck had crossed the goal line. From behind the net Lund fed Cagnoni at the right side of the crease where he sent the puck into the glove of a sprawling Copley but they ruled that he caught it on the other side of the end line. The game winning score came from Colin White with 3:59 remaining when he cashed home on a rebound after an initial shot from Ethan Cardwell from the left-wing wall making it 4-3.
Pheonix Copley made 25 saves on 29 shots in the loss while Jakub Skarek picked up the win making 24 saves on 27 shots.