ONTARIO, Calif. – The Iowa Wild mounted a comeback bid against the Ontario Reign but came up a goal short in a 4-3 defeat at Toyota Arena on Wednesday night.
Aatu Jämsen set up Kenny Connors at the top of the crease for a forehand finish past Riley Mercer (16 saves) 1:17 into the game to put the Reign in front.
Cole Guttman punched a loose puck into the back of the net on the power play 1:57 later to double Ontario’s lead.
Jean-Luc Foudy slipped a cross-ice pass to Boris Katchouk for a wrister through Pheonix Copley (24 saves) at 7:22. Ben Gleason also picked up an assist on Foudy’s power-play goal.
Ben Jones saw his penalty shot bid ring off the post at 15:33 and Jared Wright restored the two-goal lead for Ontario with 1:48 remaining in the opening frame.
Iowa and Ontario both posted eight shots in the first 20 minutes.
Carson Lambos made the score 3-2 at the 8:30 mark of the second period. After Oskar Olausson and Dylan Gambrell sent the puck through the slot, Lambos stepped down from the point and beat Copley over the shoulder.
Nikita Alexandrov knifed through Iowa’s defense and set up Martin Chromiak for a one-timer at 12:23.
Iowa pulled back within a goal on the man advantage with 3:20 to play in the second period when Gerry Mayhew slid the rebound of David Spacek’s point shot under Copley. Gambrell notched his second assist of the period on Mayhew’s goal.
The Wild outshot the Reign 27-20 but were unable to come up with a tying goal in the third period. Iowa finished 2-for-4 with the man advantage while Ontario went 1-for-2 on the power play.
Iowa travels to Tucson Convention Center Arena to visit the Tucson Roadrunners on Friday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m.
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