The Ontario Reign (12-7-1-0) defeated the Calgary Wranglers (11-9-2-1) Saturday night by a final score of 6-1 in front of 7,942 fans at Toyota Arena. The Reign will host Calgary Sunday, Dec. 7 at 3 p.m. (PST).
Kirill Kirsanov finished the night with a pair of goals scoring his first AHL goal in the first period while Samuel Bolduc finished with three assists recording his 100th career AHL point. Nikita Alexandrov scored in his Reign debut on a night where 11 different skaters tallied a point, five scored a goal, and five had multi-point games.
Ontario led 2-1 after the first period. Daniil Mirmanov gave the Wranglers a 1-0 lead 5:36 into the game with a wrist shot from the high slot beating Copley glove side. Then just 54 seconds later Kirill Kirsanov (1st) scored his first AHL goal tying the game with assists going to Andre Lee and Kenny Connors. Lee from behind the net fed Kirsanov in the high slot where he sent a shot past the glove of Say. The Reign went 1-for-3 on the power-play in the period as Andre Lee (7th) buried his fourth man advantage strike in his last six game giving the Reign the lead at 9:32 on Ontario’s first power-play of the game. Cole Guttman stretched his point streak to four-games with the primary assist as Samuel Bolduc picked up his 100th career point with the secondary helper. Bolduc had a shot from up top sent a one-timer off the right pad of Say. Guttman collected the rebound and found Lee at the top of the crease. Shots were 8-7 Ontario in the period.
The Reign struck three times in the second period as they led 5-1 through 40 minutes of play. It took just 54 seconds into the stanza for Martin Chromiak (7th) to make it a 3-1 lead. He sent a wrist shot into the top left corner from the left face-off dot with Taylor Ward getting the primary assist and Samuel Bolduc collected his second helper of the net with the secondary. At 12:32 Kirill Kirsanov (2nd) scored his second of the night making it 4-1 as Bolduc picked up his third assist and Francesco Pinelli got credit with the secondary helper. Kirsanov sent a shot from the left point through traffic and into the cage. In his Reign debut Nikita Alexandrov (4th) increased the lead to 5-1 with 3:36 to play in the frame from Koehn Ziemmer and Kyle Burroughs who now has five assists in his last five games. Alexandrov sent a wrist shot from the high slot past the blocker of Say. Ontario outshot Calgary 9-3 in the frame.
Francesco Pinelli (3rd) made it a 6-1 score 5:15 into the third period as Martin Chromiak picked up the assist for a multi-point game. Pinelli from the right circle showed off some slick stickhandling sending a shot between the legs of Murphy.
Pheonix Copley picked up the win making 19 saves on 20 shots. Owen Say suffered the loss and was pulled after two periods where he allowed five goals on 17 shots. Connor Murphy made six saves on seven shots in the third period.
Postgame thoughts from Andrew Lord and Nikita Alexandrov.
Lord
Alexandrov