Unfortunately for Mike Stothers, Nic Dowd, Peter Budaj and the Ontario Reign, their best performance of the series was too little, too late. It was also just not quite enough.
In a hard fought, tight checking double overtime thriller (Believe me when I say it), the Reign were bested by Lukas Sedlak and the Lake Erie Monsters 2-1 en route to getting swept out of the Western Conference Finals.
This series was really as much about the Reign's struggles as it was the surprisingly structured, speedy, and opportunistic team that was the Lake Erie Monsters. The scoring started early from newly signed Blue Jackets forward Lukas Sedlak, as he found a pass in front of the net from Kerby Rychel that beat Budaj to make it 1-0.
The game would go on to be dominated by special teams play for both sides, as each team was awarded three powerplays through the end of the first period and on into the second.
Play picked up immensely in the third as Ontario started to make a tremendous push with their season on the line. It helped that early on the Reign got a huge bounce off the end wall and a bit of miscommunication from goaltender Anton Forbserg and defenseman Dylan Heatherington.
The Reign dominated the third period, with Lake Erie's Anton Forsberg fighting off numerous chances and tons of traffic in the blue paint. Ontario outshot the Monsters 14-5 in the third period with several good scoring chances coming from Ontario's top line of Dowd-Mersch-Kempe.
With the teams locked at one at the end of regulation, the first overtime game and the first inevitable one goal game of the series ensued. The Reign continued to have chances in overtime, none larger than Jordan Samuels-Thomas' blueline to goal breakaway.
JST did just about everything right, including picking the top shelf which Forsberg shoed, but put it high.
He would later have another great chance on a semi break but was forced behind the net on a wrap around only to put it cross crease behind Forsberg.
Michael Mersch also had a tremendous chance in front late in the first OT. As a loose puck front Mersch in front, he had absolutely ages to stick handle a few times, not three feet off the goalie, but Forsberg stuck with him and snagged his backhand attempt to keep Ontario from winning.
In the end, it was Lake Erie man of the hour, Lukas Sedlak, who put Lake Erie through to their first AHL Calder Cup final in franchise history. After a brilliant effort by Josh Anderson to stay on the puck and get out front, a shot hit Vincent LoVerde in front and fell to Sedlak who made no mistake by a sprawling Budaj.
With that, the handshakes commenced, and the Los Angeles Kings and Ontario Reign officially move into the offseason. A hard fought series from Ontario, whose hard working, never say die attitude was endearing and inspiring at times. However, they ran into a powerhouse, four line Monster (Sorry), that opened the usually structured Reign defense up like a tuna can. Tough way to go down, but take nothing away from Ontario, as a conference finals appearance is nothing to be ashamed of even if it might sting at the moment.
As always, let's wrap this up in the series sense of things.
Turning Points
The Game 2 loss felt like a huge blow. The Reign rarely had nights of back to back miscues like they did, and even if they were a bit sloppy they were rarely punished for it the way they were.
They also had opportunities to tie both Games 1 and 2 in the dying seconds from Adrian Kempe and Mike Mersch but failed to convert. This could have been, if not for a post and a good play from Forsberg, a very different series heading back to Cleveland.
While Game 3 was a disappointing effort, this series was really was there for the taking after Games 1 and 2 showed cracks in the Ontario armor
Key Players
Markus Hannikainen
The third line winger was outstanding in the series, providing four points, two goals, and a massive Game 2 performance that helped lead Lake Erie to victory. Aside from scoring, his line was pesky almost every night and ultimately won the battle against the Reign bottom lines. It forced Mike Stothers to even line match his top line and top pair against the trio of Sedlak-Hannikainen-Bjorkstrand for the latter part of the series.
Lukas Sedlak
Four goals, six points, an OT winner, and a new one-year contract in the midst of a playoff run. Pretty impressive stuff from the Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic native. As stated before, his line was just a complete handful every night for the Reign. Furthermore, this was not just an isolated series for the Jackets 2011 6th round pick, he has been hot since early March.
Anton Forbserg
Forsberg came into this series in valiant relief after some questionable goaltending nearly cost them the Grand Rapids series. He was not hardly tested as much as the Reign would have liked in Games 1 and 2, or even in Game 3, but he came up with the big saves when he had to. Game 4 was the Forsberg show, as several huge saves were needed to keep Lake Erie in front or in a tie game. The Swede put up a 41 save game in Game 4, perhaps his best performance of the series. He turned away 121 shots of the 127 he faced in the series, good enough for a .953 save percentage.
Ontario Reign Leadership group
This was a challenging series for the Reign leaders. Budaj did not have a particularly strong series, and while the Ontario top line pair of Dowd/Mersch did well at creating their own chances, it seemed to come at a stalemate against the opposing Lake Erie players. Kevin Gravel and Derek Forbort also had a rough go of things.
However, Game 4 was a response game that could leave a coach pretty proud. It was a characteristically Reign game, with chippy physical play, tight checking, and attention to details. It, unfortunately, was just too little too late.
Joel Lowry
Lowry had a bit of a coming out if you will in this postseason. Alongside other grind line players who had excellents playoffs like Justin Auger and JST, Lowry caught the eye and the score column. He had six points in 12 playoff games, and two goals and an assist in the four game series against Lake Erie. After coming of a season where back surgery shelved him all year, he looked right up to speed by the end of the year.
Paul LaDue
LaDue was thrust into an extremely difficult position. Did he do extremely well? No. Did he do abhorrently bad? No. While he was middle of the road for the most part, there were flashes of what he CAN do at this level. Considering these were literally the first pro games he has ever played, it is good to see there was almost zero hesitation in playing his game. Also consider that Paul LaDue was inserted into the lineup ahead of Alex Lintuniemi, but also a healthy Nick Ebert and Zac Leslie. That says something. Welcome to the show LaDue, this was a tough preamble, but next year is the real deal.
Key Stats
4-0
What else needs to be said? The Reign, fittingly, lost four games in a row for the first time all season.
121-of-127
Anton Forberg turned away 121 shots in this series, an average of 31.75 shots per game. The Reign peppered him, and he stood up to the test nightly. It would be hard to pick out one single goal that he would want back, and that was a major part of the Lake Erie victory.
Moving Forward
The Reign move into the offseason now officially. Exit interviews and locker cleanout will likely come in the next few days or perhaps next week. While there will be articles over the offseason about the Reign, they have some potential turnover coming from free agents and NHL call ups. Will they have Nic Dowd, Michael Mersch and Kevin Gravel next year? Do they keep the key free agent talents like Samuels-Thomas, Newbury, or Sean Backman? Who will play in net instead of Peter Budaj who may very well be the Kings backup next year? Many AHL teams face these quandaries each and every offseason by nature of the league. The promising thing here is that the Reign have a lot of youth coming out of the NCAA and junior levels for next year, along with many other players like MacDermid, Lowry, and Adrian Kempe looking to take on larger roles next season. This should be a decently competitive team again next season.
For here on the blog, a big thanks has to go out to each and every one of you who stayed with us through the Reign coverage once the Kings went out. You can count on even more detailed and feature-esque work next season.
Enjoy your summers everyone, Kings organization hockey is officially closed on the ice for now.
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