ONTARIO, Calif. – The Ontario Reign (21-10-2-4), four-time Pacific Division Champions and proud affiliate of the NHL’s 2014 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings and Winnipeg Jets, hung on for a 3-2 shootout victory over the Bakersfield Condors (17-16-1-4) in front of a crowd of 6,334 on Wednesday evening at Citizens Business Bank Arena.
Despite being forced to kill three penalties in the first period, the Reign took the lead after Matt White stole the puck behind the Condors net and fed it to Gasper Kopitar at the right circle, who snapped the puck through the pads of Ty Rimmer at 19:12.
Ontario faced some adversity early in the second period when Nolan Julseth-White received a five-minute boarding major and a game misconduct at 2:05, but the Reign successfully killed the entire penalty, aided by Joe Cannata’s poise in net.
In the third period, Ontario padded its lead to two goals when Rocco Carzo banged home a rebound from Norm Ezekiel at 7:43. Robert Czarnik, playing in his first game for the Reign after being acquired from the Indy Fuel earlier in the day, received the secondary assist.
The Condors answered with two quick goals from Joe Marciano at 8:52, and Sebastien Sylvestre at 9:19 to even the score and force overtime.
The extra five minute session yielded no score, so the game went to the shootout. After Kopitar and Sylvestre scored for their clubs in the first two rounds, neither goalie surrendered a shot until the sixth round, when Czarnik broke in on Rimmer and faked the goalie out as he moved the puck to his backhand, and lifted it over the goaltender’s blocker.
Cannata secured the win for Ontario when he robbed Brendan Brooks with a glove save to give the Reign their sixth straight victory.
Cannata picked up the win by making 31 saves; Rimmer recorded 21 stops in the loss.
Three Stars:
1. ONT – Joe Cannata
2. ONT – Gasper Kopitar
3. ONT – Rocco Carzo
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