The Ontario Reign had an early lead and a power-play goal in their pocket, but Tucson kept coming and left Toyota Arena with a 3-2 win on Saturday afternoon.
Aatu Jämsen and Cole Guttman scored for Ontario, while Hampton Slukynsky turned aside 40 of 43 shots in the loss. The Reign finished 1-for-3 on the power play, went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill, and were outshot 43-21 in front of 4,842 fans.
Ontario opened the game on the right foot when Jämsen scored his fourth at 8:08, finishing a feed from Jared Wright for a 1-0 edge. The Reign then killed off a roughing minor to Guttman at 14:35, and later survived a double minor for high-sticking to Desnoyers at 19:21, which carried a power play for Ontario into the second period. Even with Tucson controlling more of the puck and outshooting the Reign 13-5 in the opening frame, Ontario took that 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
The second period belonged to the special teams. Guttman made it 2-0 at 2:52 on the power play, with Lane Pederson and Scott Perunovich drawing the assists.
Tucson answered at 11:35 when Hebig scored off passes from Austin Poganski and Tomas Lavoie, trimming the margin to 2-1. Then Ontario was penalized for too many men at 14:04, and Hebig struck again on the power play at 15:18, this time with Jones and Gabe Smith on the assists, to pull the Roadrunners even at 2-2.
Ontario had a chance to regain control when Tij Iginla went off for tripping at 17:27, but the Reign couldn’t cash in. Tucson outshot Ontario 12-9 in the period and held a 25-14 shot edge after two.
The deciding goal came in the third. Rooney put Tucson in front 3-2 at 11:23, assisted by Yegor Borikov and Jones.
Ontario got one last kill after Guttman was called for hooking at 18:34, but the Reign couldn’t find the equalizer. Tucson finished the final period with an 18-7 shot advantage.
Michael Hrabal earned the win with 19 saves on 21 shots. Ontario dropped to 5-6-0-0 and will host the San Jose Barracuda on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at Toyota Arena at 7 p.m. PT.
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