Reign battle Condors in 6-3 victory
The Ontario Reign earn hard fought 6-3 victory over the Bakersfield Condors. Two goals from Nikita Alexandrov, a power-play goal from Andre Lee, a shorthanded goal from Jack Hughes, and scores by Aatu Jämsen & Glenn Gawdin hand the Reign their 43rd win. Ontario remains in first place in the AHL Pacific Division with 91 points and a 43-19-3-2 record.
ONTARIO, CA. -- The Ontario Reign win back-to-back games with a 6-3 hard fought victory over the Bakersfield Condors on Saturday night at Toyota Arena. After shutting out Coachella Valley 7-0 on Wednesday, the Reign have scored 13 goals in their last two games.
After a long stretch of being away for the past 17 days, going 3-3 in that time, competing on home ice for the first time in over two weeks meant that Ontario would hopefully put on a good show, which they did. When asked about the Reign’s offense the past two games, Kenny Connors said: “I think we’re defending better, (it) starts in our own zone. We’re getting the puck out cleaner and it’s leading to better odd-man rushes or cleaner rushes and we’re really trying to get to the middle more in the (offensive) zone.
” The Reign fought - literally and figuratively - for this win, as it was a vicious battle with Ontario only having five games remaining in the regular season. Since clinching a spot in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs on March 27 after beating the Tucson Roadrunners 3-2, the Reign have gone 3-1. The Reign are currently in first place in the AHL Pacific Division at 43-19-3-2 and 91 points.
The Colorado Eagles stand only one point back in second place with a 40-17-5-5 record. Roby Järventie opened the scoring early for Bakersfield (34-22-9-1) with a power-play goal 1:47 into the first period. The players had been chirpy and played rough from start to finish, but a fight between Jacob Doty and Sam Poulin halfway through the opening period would soon increase the momentum of the game.