Reign Recap: Another Gut Punch Loss For The Reign Vs The Firebirds

For the first time since the Pacific Division Finals, the Reign took on the Coachella Valley Firebirds in Ontario on Friday night.

This game started exactly how the Reign didn’t want it to. Two early penalties landed Ontario on a two man disadvantage, leading to an Eduard Sale one-time goal to put the Firebirds up early.

But Ontario would answer quickly, thanks to some unexpected help from Firebirds goalie Nikke Kokko.

Kokko recovered a Jacob Moverare dump-in and attempted to dish it out to his left from behind the net. Jeff Malott picked the pass off and found Glenn Gawdin in front for the easy tally.

Unlike the first period, the second started how the Reign drew up, taking the lead thanks to a perfect Taylor Ward wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

The Firebirds would respond shortly after. Their heavy forecheck would force two turnovers in the Reign’s defensive zone, leading to a Ville Ottavainen one-timer that beat Erik Portillo.

In the third period, the Reign would get out to another lead. Luke Rowe's low blast ricocheted off Kokko and found Jacob Doty's stick for a rebound goal.

Of course, it would not be a Reign-Firebird game if it weren’t back and forth. This time, it was Portillo who would make a costly error.

With Jami Nyman driving around the net, Portillo got stuck between attempting a poke check and getting to the far post. Unfortunately for Portillo, he did neither, allowing for an easy wraparound for Nyman, tying the game up with 8:49 left to play.

With less than three minutes of play, Jagger Furkus would tally a tip in goal, putting Coachella Valley ahead.

Ontario made a great effort to come back but came up empty handed, resulting in a gut punch of a loss for the Reign, who were leading with less than 10 minutes to go.

Here are my three takeaways from this game:

Faceoffs Were Subpar

One of the factors that have made the Reign so good the past few games have been their faceoffs.

All four of their primary centers, Gawdin, Pinelli, Studnicka, and current LA King Samuel Helenius, have been very successful this season inside the circle.

On Friday, the Reign weren’t themselves on faceoffs. Outside of Jack Studnicka, who had another nice night in the circle from my unofficial stats, Gawdin and Pinelli were below average.

Additionally, not having Helenius as a presence seemed to hurt the team. He has been an essential player for Ontario, evidenced by his call up to the big club.

Sloppiness

Although the Reign got the 8-4 win Wednesday night over the Abbotsford Canucks, Sturm was somewhat disappointed with the victory.

He mentioned there were a lot of mistakes in that game that needed to be cleaned up moving forward.

Unfortunately for Ontario, those mistakes and overall “sloppiness” bled over into this game against Coachella Valley, and it cost them. The mistakes were made in the biggest moments of the game late in the third, when the Reign blew the lead.

One-Sided Rivalry?

The past couple seasons, there has been a new found rivalry between these two teams and fanbases.

Part of the reason is how close these two teams are to each other - only an hour and a half drive on the I-10 freeway.

But the main reason is how tight these squads play each other. Every game is a battle, and it is very apparent the two teams do not like each other.

I asked Taylor Ward if a loss like this stings a little more against the Firebirds, in which he had this to say:

The Firebirds swept the Reign out of the Pacific division finals last season, and are currently 2-0 against them this season.

There’s definitely bad blood there, but is this turning into a one-sided rivalry?

These two teams will square off again on Sunday night in Coachella Valley. It should be another fun matchup.