Ontario Reign: Three takeaways from 3-2 OT win vs Abbotsford

Goal Breakdown

First period:

ABB: Marc Gatcomb (3), ASST: Aatu Raty (15)

ONT: PP Lias Andersson (26), ASST: Jacob Moverare (19), Samuel Fagemo (8)

Second period:

ABB: Arshdeep Bains (11), ASST: Chad Nychuk (3), Quinn Schmiemann (5)

Third period:

ONT: PP Samuel Fagemo (22), ASST: Lias Andersson (25), Jacob Moverare (20)

Overtime:

ONT: OT Tyler Madden (18), ASST: Alex Turcotte (11), Tobias Bjornfot (8)

Stats

Goals:

ABB: 2

ONT: 3

Shots: 

ABB: 31

ONT: 26

Power-plays:

ABB: 0/2

ONT: 2/4

Here are the three takeaways from Sunday’s 3-2 overtime victory

Special teams come up big

While the penalty kill has been great, the power play has been in a funk as of late. With Jordan Spence up with the LA Kings, we have seen some shuffling on the blue line with the power-play units. Jacob Moverare is on the first power-play unit while Tobias Bjornfot is on the second unit.

After their first power-play attempt generated one shot, the Reign swapped two players out of their usual positions. Lias Andersson, usually at the side of the net, was moved to the right circle replacing TJ Tynan, who took Andersson’s spot on the power play. The move paid off as the Reign struck twice on the power play with Andersson and Samuel Fagemo blasting the puck from their off-side for their 26th and 22nd goals of the reason respectfully. Andersson also had the primary assist on Fagemo’s goal. Will it be something Marco Sturm goes to more often? We’ll have to wait and see.

In addition to the two power-play goals, the penalty kill went 2-for-2.

Tyler Madden wins it in overtime

While Tyler Madden has 18 goals on the season, it’s been a weird one. There are games where he’ll have a multi-goal night and then go scoreless for a while. On Sunday afternoon, he was the hero for the Ontario Reign. After Alex Turcotte made a quick spin move to get a step ahead of the defender, Madden went straight to the net where Turcotte fed him the puck. I couldn’t tell if it went off of Madden and directly into the net or if he got two chances at it. No matter what, a goal is a goal, and the Reign skated away with the two points.

Since returning from injury, Turcotte has recorded a primary assist in each of his last three games and his skating has looked good as well. He just needs to stay healthy.

Magic number

Entering yesterday afternoon, the magic number for the Ontario Reign to clinch a playoff spot was nine points. With the San Jose Barracuda losing to the Bakersfield Condors in regulation and the Ontario Reign winning in overtime, the magic number is now down to five points with eight games to play. The Reign need to just win three of those games or win two and lose in overtime or a shootout to clinch a playoff spot. With the first four seeds already seeming to be decided, the final three spots are still up for grabs with four teams in the hunt.

UP NEXT: The Ontario Reign are back in action Wednesday as the Colorado Eagles come to town. The game starts at 7 pm PT and can be seen on AHLTV.