The Ontario Reign had no answer for Henderson’s burst to start the second period, and that was the difference in a 5-2 loss Saturday night at Toyota Arena.
In front of 6,274 fans, the Silver Knights struck twice in the first 3:03 of the middle frame, then kept stacking goals from there. Ontario got on the board with a Joe Hicketts penalty-shot goal and later a power-play tally from Aatu Jämsen, but the Reign never fully climbed out of the hole.
Hampton Slukynsky finished with 22 saves in the defeat, while Henderson cashed in on two empty-net goals to put the game away late. The Reign were also perfect on the penalty kill, going 6-for-6.
The night started tight, though. Neither team scored in the opening period, even as Henderson controlled a good chunk of the puck and outshot Ontario 12-4.
Slukynsky stopped every one of those looks, and the Silver Knights missed on both of their power-play chances in the frame. Ontario had one man-advantage opportunity of its own, with Alexander Holtz in the box for roughing and Hicketts for holding at the horn.
Henderson finally cracked the game open early in the second. Jackson Hallum scored at 1:13 with assists from Kmec and Matyas Sapovaliv, then Mitch McLain followed at 3:03 off Adam Ginning’s lone assist to make it 2-0. The period also featured a fight between Kaleb Lawrence and Joe Fleming at 9:15.
Ontario’s response came on a strange and needed moment. With Aatu Jämsen serving a boarding penalty, Hicketts was awarded a penalty shot and buried it at 15:08 for his first of the season, trimming the lead to 2-1.
The Reign pushed back in the third and found another key chance on the power play. After Henderson’s Alexander Holtz scored just 38 seconds into the period from Jonas Røndbjerg, Ontario answered at 11:28 when Kmec went off for interference. Jämsen finished the sequence with a goal from Kenny Connors and Koehn Ziemmer, pulling the Reign within one at 3-2.
That was as close as they got.
With Slukynsky pulled for an extra attacker, McLain scored into the empty net at 18:42, assisted by Holtz and Ville Heinola, and Jakub Demek added another at 19:31 from Hallum and Kmec.
Cameron Whitehead picked up the win in relief, stopping seven of eight shots in the third after Carl Lindbom made nine saves on 10 shots through the first 40 minutes.
Ontario went 1-for-3 on the power play and will be back at Toyota Arena on Tuesday, Oct. 20, when it hosts the Calgary Wranglers at 7 p.m. PST.
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