Ontario Reign Fizzled by Steelheads

It was definitely a rough Wednesday night for the Ontario Reign. They lost to the Idaho Steelheads 6-1 after a bit of rest and a win against the Utah Grizzlies last week.

Ontario won against the Grizzlies in a very close game but still made it through to the end. After a round of losses, the first win in a while made the rest of the Reign’s December record look more hopeful than before. They still had many things to work on like consistency and possession and Wednesday’s game against Idaho proved that they still have not perfected the little kinks yet.

The Steelheads started the first period ready to dominate and that’s just what they did. They pounced at an early lead just 55 seconds into the period when Colton Beck got the puck into the neutral zone and passed it over to Devin DiDiomete. DiDiomete shot and was able to get past Reign goaltender Jussi Olkinuora. In what seemed like a few seconds later, Beck did it again and was able to drop the puck in Gaelan Patterson‘s path. Patterson buried the puck at 1:13 and left the Reign already trailing behind. The 2-0 score didn’t last long as the Reign’s Rocco Carzo got his team up on the scoreboard at 8:51 with assists from Ryan Parent and Nolan Julseth-White. That didn’t affect the Steelheads at all as they regained their two-goal lead when James Livingston snapped a shot and scored at 13:29.

The second period was scoreless for both teams. Even though the Reign ended up outshooting Idaho, it wasn’t enough to keep up with Steelheads goaltender Olivier Roy.

The Reign had just as tough of a time during the third period as they did in the beginning of the game. Idaho dominated the lead even more with an early goal by Brett Robinson at 0:38 but that wasn’t it for them. They secured their 6-1 win for the night with additional goals by Jason Bast at 1:49 and Wade MacLeod at 4:55. Olkinuora took the loss with 18 saves while Roy won with 28.

There’s no doubt that some quick fixes are going to have to happen before the Reign go up against the Colorado Eagles this weekend for a 3-game series.