The Ontario Reign (17-9-1-1) defeated the San Jose Barracuda (17-10-1-0) Saturday night by a final score of 3-0 in front of 4,329 fans at Tech CU Arena. The Reign will play in Henderson on Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. (PST).
Isaiah Saville made 32 saves for his second shutout in his last three starts as Andre Lee scored his team leading 12th of the year in his 200th professional game. Glenn Gawdin assisted on Lee’s goal early into the third period making it 2-0 stretching bis point streak to seven-games in his 100th game with Ontario. Aatu Jämsen snapped a 15-game goal less drought late in the first giving Ontario a 1-0 lead. Nikita Alexandrov scored his seventh of the campaign on an empty net with 93 seconds to play.
The Reign led 1-0 after the first period on an unassisted goal from Aatu Jämsen (5th) with 3:43 remaining. From the right-wing wall Kenny Connors drove the puck behind the net and sent a shot from the left circle turned away by Jakub Skarek. The Barracuda tried to clear the puck, but it found Jamsen right inside the hash marks where he sent a shot low past the right leg of Skarek. Ontario outshot San Jose 9-8 and went 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.
There was no score in the second period as Isaiah Saville made 13 stops as the Barracuda outshot the Reign 13-7. Jakub Dvořak dropped the gloves with Kasper Halttunen 4:21 into the period after Halttunen laid a big hit on Kenta Isogai in front of the San Jose bench. Dvořak received an extra two minutes for roughing, but the Reign killed off the penalty and were 2-for-2 through 40 minutes of play. They got their first power-play of the night when Jack Hughes drew a cross-checking minor at 9:06 but the Reign failed to convert. Shots through two periods favored San Jose 21-16.
Andre Lee (12th) extended the lead to 3-0 just 3:47 into the third period from Glenn Gawdin. With Martin Chromiak in hard on the fore-check behind the net Gawdin grabbed control of the puck at the right side of the goal line and fed Lee all alone a couple feet in front of the crease. With great patience Lee went from his forehand to his backhand sliding the puck past the right leg of Jakub Skarek. San Jose pulled Skarek with 3:59 left in regulation and Nikita Alexandrov (7th) cashed in with an empty netter from Jared Wright with 93 seconds left to seal the 3-0 victory.
Ontario went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-2 on the power-play.