Ontario Reign’s Andre Lee celebrates his goal against the San Jose Barracuda in the Reign’s 3-2 shootout win at Toyota Arena on Saturday APR 6, 2024. (Ontario Reign)

by Marko Ukalovic

Taylor Ward scored the game winning goal in the shootout as the Ontario Reign came back from a two-goal deficit to defeat the San Jose Barracuda 3-2 in a shootout win on Saturday evening at Toyota Arena.

San Jose has lost five of its past six games and finished 1-4 on their five-game road trip. Ontario has won a season best seven games in a row. The Barracuda went winless against the Reign in the season series 0-6-1-1.

San Jose (21-33-9-4-53 points) drew first blood early in the first period with an even strength goal. Ethan Cardwell came into the Reign zone on a two-on-one odd man rush with Danil Gushchin. Cardwell feathered a pass over to Gushchin who skated in all alone and beat Reign goalie Erik Portillo with a wrist shot to the short side for his 17th goal of the season at the 4:35 mark.

Ontario (38-21-3-4-83 points) out shot San Jose 13-8 in the opening frame but weren’t able to get a puck past ‘Cuda goalie Georgi Romanov, who was impressive and saw the puck well.

The Barracuda doubled in the first two minutes of the second period with an even strength goal. Kyle Rau’s shot went through a scramble in front of the net. The puck leaked out to Tristen Robins who poked home the puck into the back of the net for his fifth goal of the season at the 1:46 mark.

The Reign cut the lead in half just over three minutes later with an even strength goal. Kim Nousiainen set up Francesco Pinelli at the ‘Cuda blueline. Pinelli made a toe-drag past Jack Thompson Pinelli before beating Romanov with a backhander for his 10th goal of the season at the 4:56 mark.

Ontario scored the equalizer late in the third period with an even strength goal. Hayden Hodgen sprung Andre Lee up the ice with a pass in the neutral zone. Lee skated in and his wrist shot hit off the mask of Romanov and through his five-hole for his seventh goal of the season at the 16:22 mark.

The overtime period was filled with drama as Samuel Fagemo thought he had won the game when his wrist shot got past Romanov with 2:07 remaining. However, the officials ruled that there was goaltender interference on the play by Ontario negating the goal. Fagemo had one last attempt that rang off the post with four seconds left sending the game to the shootout.

Portillo (21-10-3-2) finished the game stopping 27 of the 29 shots he faced and all three ‘Cuda attempts in the shootout to earn his 21st win of the season. Romanov, who had another great game in net, made 41 saves on 43 shots as he lost for the first time in a shootout this season.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 0-for-2 on the power play. Ontario was 0-for-3.

The Three Stars of the Game: 1) Portillo 2) Lee 3) Romanov.

UP NEXT: San Jose returns home for their final homestand, three games, to take on the Henderson Silver Knights on Wednesday 4/10 at 7:00pm at Tech CU Arena.