In a quiet hallway outside the locker room, Reign coach Mike Stothers perhaps summed it up best in just a few words.
"It’s just one of those games where it’s just like not quite in sync, not quite in focus, not quite, and it’s just missing."
The nail was hit firmly on the head. It was a night of everything just being kind of off for Ontario. Outlets were not as crisp, pucks weren't quite getting through, and while shots were coming they were not quite threatening. The passes weren't tape to tape, they were into the skates, behind the receiver, etc. It was just an off night. Rightfully, the Reign dropped a pretty listless Game 3 on Sunday night 3-0 to San Diego.
All credit to the Gulls, because they pulled together a very complete performance from start to finish. The Anaheim affiliate scored first off the stick of Kale Kossila, and never looked back. Kossila found himself in front after beating center Adrian Kempe by a step out of the corner. The young forward never quite caught up to Kossila, and he found a weak side rebound from a point shot that Peter Budaj had no chance on.
The second period, much like the previous night, was a period not pleasing to the eye of the watcher. In fact, from about the halfway mark of the first it was a parade to the penalty box. From the 14:45 mark of the 1st period, all the way to the second, seven minor penalties were called between the two teams. With little flow, and little success on the powerplay for either team, the game went into the third period the same as it left the first, 1-0.
The third, however, saw the finally convert on the powerplay with Nick Ritchie tucking home a rebound in front off of a point shot from Brandon Montour.
Jaycob Megna would later add an empty net goal to put the Reign to the grave 3-0. Stothers was aggressive on his goalie pull, as he opted to remove Budaj with almost a full four minutes left in the third period. It was all for naught though as the Reign rarely could set up zone time or manage breakouts with the goalie pulled. In fact, from after the Gulls second goal, the team went into a heavy 1-3-1 (0-4-1...) neutral zone scheme and completely shut down any Reign breakouts.
Coach Stothers added in detail after the game that his players committed some "major brain cramps" in not attacking the Gulls with speed or dumping the puck to soft areas.
"You’ve got to try to attack with speed. If they’re just going to wall the neutral zone, they don’t have speed. You’ve got to lay it by them and then pursue it on the other side. I think we did do that except we were giving it to their goalie, which was ridiculous. We weren’t laying it into the soft areas and hunting down their defensemen."
Kevin Gravel later added in post game that he felt moving their feet would have better dealt with the San Diego traps, " If we can get our feet moving maybe it will open up a lane or something like that or we can get the red line ourselves."
It was a night of generally poor execution, which captain Vincent LoVerde also highlighted in post game, " I didn’t think our execution was great tonight but we’ll regroup here and be better to Friday."
All in all though the feeling was fairly positive and determined to have a good day off and set of practices in lead up to Game 4 Friday night in San Diego.
In essence, the Gulls played a perfect road game tonight, and got a well earned victory.
Turning Points
Two early shifts in the game the Reign failed to make breakouts when they were cleanly presented to them. Derek Forbort just slightly missed on a pass to get out of his zone, while Adrian Kempe, who had a tough night in general, failed to skate a play out of his zone. Both resulted in some zone decent time for the Gulls. It was a foreshadowing of the evening to come. The Reign were not as sharp as they would have liked to be and it was evident early on with simple plays not being executed.
There was also a powerplay opportunity for the Reign early in the third period, much like Game 2. However, they did not score on it like the previous night and even up the game. Momentum was in the balance for most of the evening, and the Reign failing to capitalize on the third period powerplay was big. Coupled with the Gulls' own powerplay marker from Nick Ritchie, the game was pretty well dead and buried by the halfway mark of the third.
Key Stats
While Crescenzi and Dowd had decent nights in the circles, everyone else was pretty dismal. Kempe and Amadio struggled, and a shift was actually made by Stothers to move Kempe back to wing in the third period. Stothers added on the third period line combos "I can only watch for so long. If I don’t like what I’m seeing then I’m going to change it up. There was some different looks in the third period. We didn’t have anything going, so doesn’t make much sense to keep rolling the same guys out if there’s nothing going on."
10
The Reign got 10 shots between Kempe, Mersch, Dowd, and Backman. While that seems okay for four players, these are the offensive catalysts for the Reign and it was low by their standards. For reference, in Game 2 Backman and Dowd alone combined for 14 shots on the night. Combined with Mersch and Kempe that total was 20. So in just the course of one game, the Reign's top 4 offensive contributors saw their shots (and probably chances) halved.
191
That was how many minutes of hockey the Reign and Gulls have played in the last 4 days. It has been a grueling three in four set for the two rivals, and now they get a much needed break until Friday. While no player used it as an excuse, a listless performance from one side or the other was almost too perfect a narrative to not have happen.
Key Players
Kale Kossila
The former St. Cloud state forward was a curious scratch in game two, despite scoring a goal and not really doing much to play his way out of the lineup in Game 1. Nevertheless he was removed while vets like Harry Zolnierczyk and Brian McGrattan stayed in. Game 3 saw Kossila come back in for the latter forward, and the forward was able to notch his second of the series and a key opening goal.
Shea Theodore
The Gulls played seven defenseman, and Theodore played the role of pivot man for three different partners at times. Both Brian Cooper and Andy Welinski saddled up with him through the majority of the game, before he moved with Montour late in the third. He is a highly skilled defenseman who can make players around him better, and pairing him with a couple of very green defensemen was a risky move by Eakins but did keep his D-corps fairly fresh and versatile.
Reign depth forwards
Joel Lowry, Paul Bissonnette, Sam Herr, and Mike Amadio all played well enough to see some steady shifts and even some elevation late in the game. Each of these players had a little bit of extra jump to their game, and that was caught by Stothers as he moved each up with different Top 6 rotations. While the juggling did not lead to goals, it was a nice nod to some of the more blue collar low minute guys of the lineup. One of the quotes of the night from Stothers came in regard to Sam Herr, who take his second heavy hit in as many games. While a nasty knee on knee from Wagner sent him down in Game 2, it was a board in Game 3 from Stu Bickel that got Stothers to call Herr a "Tough son of a bitch."
Moving forward
it's a much needed four days off for both teams. Friday the series moves down to San Diego for what could be another "If necessary" three in four night from Friday-Saturday-Monday.
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