Reign Recap: Portillo, Lee Come Up Big In Win Over Gulls

It was a classic rivalry matchup Saturday night, as the Ontario Reign went down south to square off against the San Diego Gulls.

For the first time since his first star performance in his NHL debut, Erik Portillo got the start in between the pipes.

After a tough loss to the Texas Stars Tuesday night, the Reign needed two points against a struggling San Diego Gulls team.

Right out of the gate, Nikita Nesterenko had a breakaway chance that was stopped by a Portillo scorpion save.

The fans in San Diego were buzzing in the arena, eager to throw their teddy bears, and it almost happened within the first 10 seconds of the game.

Unfortunately for the Reign, the teddy bears would come raining down a little more than midway through the first period. Yegor Sidorov sniped one top shelf, giving the Gulls an early lead.

In the following minutes, Ontario would have multiple grade A chances to tie the game up, including a Charles Hudson breakaway that was set up by a great stretch pass from Glenn Gawdin.

At the end of two periods, the Reign had 30 shots on net, the Gulls had eight, and yet it was 1-0 San Diego.

Gulls netminder Oscar Dansk was on his A-game in this one, stopping everything that was coming his way.

Finally, at the start of the 3rd period, Andre Lee broke through, scoring his first of the year to put Ontario on the board.

It took 42 minutes of play for the Reign to get a puck past a goalie with a 4.01 goals against average coming into the game.

For the first two periods, Ontario stayed out of the box. In the third, though, the Reign had to kill two crucial penalties.

The game went to overtime tied at 1, and the Reign had to kill another crucial penalty in the extra period. Fortunately, they did, highlighted by a diving poke check by Joe Hicketts.

In the shootout, Taylor Ward would score the only goal to give the Reign the 2-1 win.

Here are my two takeaways from the game

Insane Goalie Performance

This game was a tale of two goalies dueling for the win. Portillo came into this game coming off an all-time high with the Los Angeles Kings, earning first star in his first NHL game.

Oscar Dansk, however, is coming off three straight games where he has given up three or more goals.

Both of them played spectacular games, saving multiple grade A chances. Dansk saved 37 of 38 shots, while Portillo saved 21 of 22.

The play by both goalies was highlighted by a wild sequence 12 minutes into the 2nd period, where there were multiple high danger chances by both teams on opposite ends on the ice.

Veterans Step Up Again

Once again, it was the veterans who came up clutch in this win.

Joe Hicketts, who did not make the scoresheet, made a huge diving poke check in overtime when the Gulls were on the power play.

Andre Lee came down from the Kings and makes an immediate impact, scoring the game-tying goal in the 3rd period.

Taylor Ward scored the lone tally in the shootout, going top shelf on Dansk.

Last season, the story was about the young core the Reign had. This season, the veterans continue to play starring roles for the Ontario Reign.