WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – The Ontario Reign (7-4), four-time ECHL Pacific Division Champions and proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s 2014 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings and Winnipeg Jets, were led by Garry Nunn’s two goals en route to a 4-2 win over the Utah Grizzlies (5-5) in Game 4 of the Pacific Division Finals to take a 3-1 series lead in front of a crowd of 3,250 on Friday night at Maverik Center.
Ontario struck first in the opening period while on the man advantage, as Nunn corralled a rolling puck behind the goal line of the Utah net and banked the puck off the pads of Igor Bobkov and into the cage at 12:17. 
Jussi Olkinuora kept his team in the game, stopping all 10 shots he faced in the frame, including a point-blank toe save on T.J. Syner.
The Reign continued to convert on the power play in the second period, as Maxim Kitsyn redirected Dennis Brown’s pass along the ice past Bobkov at 1:05.
Utah responded with a power-play goal of its own when Ryan Hayes fired a wrist shot that beat Olkinuora at 2:04, and the Grizzlies tied the score during a 2-on-1 that ended with Patrick Wellar burying a feed from Hayes at 8:28.
In the third period, Ontario took the lead again when Tristan King fed Nunn, and the winger split the Utah defense and tucked a backhand shot through the pads of Bobkov at 2:08.
The Reign were tested defensively in the final stanza, as they had to kill a number of successive 5-on-3 situations, but Olkinuora stood tall for Ontario the rest of the way, and King sealed the game with an empty-net power-play goal for the Reign at 19:38.
Olkinuora picked up the win with 23 saves; Bobkov took the loss with 24 stops.
Three Stars:
1. ONT – Garry Nunn
2. UTA – Ryan Hayes
3. ONT – Tristan King
You must be logged in to post a comment.