The San Jose Barracuda bow to the Ontario Reign in a three goal loss at the Toyota Center in Ontario for the Barracuda third loss in a row on Mon Jan 31, 2022 (image by the San Jose Barracuda)
by Marko Ukalovic
ONTARIO, Calif. —Jaret Anderson Dolan scored a hat trick as the Ontario Reign scored a season high eight goals to defeat the San Jose Barracuda 8-5 on Monday evening at Toyota Arena.
San Jose has lost three games in a row and six of their last seven. Ontario has won five of their past six games, including three in a row over the Barracuda. The game was rescheduled from the original date of November 27th, 2021 that postponed due to an ice machine malfunction at the Toyota Arena.
San Jose (14-22-1-0) drew first blood in the early in the first minute of the first period. Joachim Blichfeld led an odd man rush up the ice with John Leonard. Blichfeld passed it over to Leonard who buried a wrist shot past Reign goalie Lukas Parik for his ninth goal of the season 40 seconds into the contest.
Ontario (23-7-3-2) answered back in half the time. Helge Grans sent a pass through the crease where Jaret Anderson-Dolan wasn’t successful on his first attempt but cleaned up his own rebound by slipping the puck underneath ‘Cuda goalie Sam Harvey for his 12th goal of the season at the 1:00 mark.
The Reign gained the lead over two minutes later. Brett Sutter centered a pass into the middle and Austin Wagner tipped home the puck past Harvey for his ninth goal of the season at the 2:41 mark.
Wagner has scored in all four games against the Barracuda this season.
Ontario scored its third unanswered goal late in the opening frame. Markus Phillips sent a shot in from the left point and Alex Turcotte redirected the puck past Harvey from the slot for his fifth goal of the season at the 16:52 mark.
The first period was very physical that featured two fights off two separate clean hits by San Jose. Kenoi Texeira and Samuel Fagemo tussled with each other at the 13:35 mark. Then Artemi Kniazev and Wagner dropped the gloves at the 17:43 mark.
San Jose cut the lead to a one a goal game early in the second period. Cole Moberg’s slapshot was initially saved by Pirak, Jayden Halbgewachs cashed in the rebound into an open net for his ninth goal of the season at the 5:40 mark.
Halbgewachs snapped a 10-game goal less draught.
Ontario regained their two-goal lead over two minutes later. Anderson-Dolan had a nice give and go with Martin Frk inside the ‘Cuda zone. Dolan tapped home a wrist shot for his second goal of the game at the 7:36 mark.
Anderson-Dolan completed the hat trick 50 seconds later with a power play goal. Jordan Spence slapshot was redirected by Anderson-Dolan who was camped out near the crease for his 14th goal of the season at the 8:26 mark.
Ontario scored its third unanswered goal late in the middle frame. Aidan Dudas sent in a wrist shot from the right wing. Sutter, who was camped out on the right side of the crease, tipped the puck past Harvey for his sixth goal of the season at the 15:46 mark.
San Jose scored a power play goal near the halfway mark of the third period to cut Ontario’s lead in half. Nick Merkley found Halbgewachs open in the neutral zone. Halbgewachs was able to get behind the Reign defense and sniped home a wrist shot top shelf past Pirak for his second goal of the game and 10th of the season at the 9:10 mark.
Samuel Fagemo finished off an odd man rush with Gabriel Vilardi with his 12th goal of the season at the 15:15 mark.
Patrick Holway scored a wraparound goal for San Jose as he was falling down for his third goal of the season at the 16:28 mark.
San Jose made the score look respectable when Jake McGrew tipped in a slapshot from the point by Montana Onyebuchi with 51 seconds left in the game.
Ontario closed out the scoring when Fagemo scored his second goal of the game and 13th of the season with 38 seconds remaining.
Parik finished the evening stopping 19 of the 24 shots he faced to earn the victory. Harvey (2-5) made 22 saves on 30 shots in the losing effort and has four straight games. He is 0-2 versus Ontario this season.
GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 1-for-3 on the power play and are 0-for-9 versus the Reign on the season. Ontario was 1-for-3.
The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Anderson-Dolan 2) Wagner 3) Sutter
Ontario is 4-0 this season against San Jose this season.
San Jose went 3-9 in the month of January.
‘Cuda forward Sasha Chmelevski had two assists in his first game back in the lineup after missing the past seven games with an injury.
UP NEXT: San Jose continues its four-game road trip as the start a two-game series with the Henderson Silver Knights on Wednesday 2/2 at 7:00pm at Orleans Arena.
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