Matchup: Ontario Reign at Idaho Steelheads. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at Qwest Arena. 7 PM gametime each night.
Uhhh, where? Treasure Valley people hear “Ontario” and usually think of two places – nearby Ontario, Oregon … or not-so-near Ontario, Canada. This is neither. The Ontario Reign are based in the Los Angeles suburb in southern California. The Reign is in its second season after relocating from Texas following the 2007-2008 season.
November Reign: No, not the Ontario Reign. We’re talking reign on the ice. Forward Ashton Rome reigned supreme for Idaho in the month of November, netting seven goals in twelve games, including a hat-trick at Stockton on the team’s last road trip. It was the first hat-trick (three goals in the same game) by a Steelhead this season. Kris Sparre was the last to accomplish the feat for the ‘Heads, doing it last season.
Rookie Transition: If Evan Barlow is having a hard time transitioning from college to the pro game, the rookie out of Cornell of the Ivy League isn’t letting it show. Barlow is second on the team in goals (10) and points (20) in his first season of professional hockey. Five of his ten goals have come on the power play.
The Idaho Steelheads (19-5-2) gave up five unanswered goals tonight as the Ontario Reign (11-12-3) picked up a 5-3 win over the Steelheads at Qwest Arena. The Steelheads led 2-0 less than four minutes into the hockey game, but for the second time in the thee-game series between the teams, Ontario earned a comeback win.
The Steelheads opened the scoring this evening when John Swanson capitalized on a turnover, netting an unassisted goal for his seventh of the year at 1:57 of the opening frame. Less than two minutes later at 3:21, Adam Huxley took a pass from Matt McKnight behind the net, walked to the right faceoff circle, and fired a puck past Ontario netminder Curtis Darling to give Idaho a 2-0 lead through one period. Brandan Kushniruk also assisted on Huxley’s third of the season.
The second period was all Ontario. Peter Lenes scored at 5:13 for the Reign to cut Idaho’s lead in half, before Ontario mustered three power play goals before the closing of the second period. Tim Kraus, Mike Howe, and Greg Hogeboom fired pucks past Idaho’s Rejean Beauchemin to give Ontario a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Jon Francisco took a backdoor pass from Mike Howe at 6:36 of the third period and scored another power play goal for the Reign. At 18:35 of the third, Evan Barlow scored his own goal from the backdoor on Curtis Darling to cut Ontario’s lead to 5-3, which is how the game would end. Matt McKnight and Marty Flichel assisted on Barlow’s 11th of the year.
Rejean Beauchemin’s record falls to 9-3-1; he stopped 22 pucks in the losing effort. Curtis Darling is now 8-8-2; he stopped 21 of 24 shots.
The Steelheads are back in action Wednesday night when they host the Utah Grizzlies at Qwest Arena; the puck drops at 7:10 PM MST.