The Ontario Reign saw their three-game win streak on home ice snapped in a 4-3 shootout loss to the San Jose Barracuda.
See you tomorrow for SantaCon pic.twitter.com/cvEUd2EIix
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) December 21, 2025
Goal Breakdown
First period:
SJ: Egor Afanasyev (3), ASST: Lucas Carlsson (4), Colin White (11)
ONT: Martin Chromiak (11), ASST: Andre Lee (12)
ONT: SH Andre Lee (11), ASST: Glenn Gawdin (14)
SJ: PP Egor Afanasyev (4), ASST: Jimmy Huntington (9), Kasper Halttunen (5)
Second period:
None
Third period:
SJ: PP Oliver Wahlstrom (8), ASST: Quentin Musty (15), Luca Cagnoni (14)
ONT: Andre Lee (11), ASST: Joe Hicketts (9), Nikita Alexandrov (13)
Overtime:
None
Shootout:
Round 1:
SJ: Oliver Walhstrom – GOAL
ONT: Glenn Gawdin – GOAL
Round 2:
SJ: Filip Bystedt – NO GOAL
ONT: Taylor Ward – NO GOAL
Round 3:
SJ: Egor Afanasyev – GOAL
Egor Afanasyev scored 4 goals tonight and didn’t get the hat trick🙃 (1 called off and a shootout goal) pic.twitter.com/STwvuZSfqL
— SJ Barracuda (@sjbarracuda) December 21, 2025
ONT: Martin Chromiak – NO GOAL
Stats
Goals:
SJ: 4
ONT: 3
Shots:
SJ: 21
ONT: 31
Power plays:
SJ: 2/8
ONT: 0/4
Here are the three takeaways from Saturday night’s 4-3 shootout defeat:
Chromiak and Lee don’t stop scoring
Martin Chromiak and Andre Lee can’t stop scoring for the Reign. Both players found the back of the net in Ontario’s 4-0 victory Wednesday night over the Bakersfield Condors and did so again last night. Chromiak scored once, while Lee factored in all three of Ontario’s goals (2 G, 1 A).
Chromiak triggered the teddy bear toss with his third goal in two games and his fifth goal in seven games. Chromiak’s 20 points (11 G, 9 A) in 26 games is better than what it was at this point a year ago, and it’s been needed with the Reign. Chromiak has played primarily in a top-six forward role and has flourished.
MARTIN CHROMIAK SCORES THE TEDDY BEAR TOSS GOAL!!🧸 pic.twitter.com/cSGuW7rW85
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) December 21, 2025
Lee, on the otherhand, has been on a heater since November 8th. In that time, the Reign have played 15 games, and Lee has recorded a point in 11 of them, including four multi-point games.
HAVE NO FEAR, DRE IS HERE!!! pic.twitter.com/rlNAJatZHJ
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) December 21, 2025
DRE WITH LESS THAN A MINUTE LEFT!! YOUR #REIGNTRAIN ARE HEADED TO OVERTIME!!! 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/Rl4R0IKq8d
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) December 21, 2025
Lee has accepted the challenge of taking on a bigger role with the Reign this year, and the improvement in his game is showing. His offensive production across the board (goals, assists, and points) is all career highs in the AHL, just 26 games into the season. Lee also leads the Reign in scoring with 23 points.
Could both players be making a case for a call-up?
Too many penalties
The Reign have been more disciplined than they were at the start of the year, but the penalty troubles resurfaced last night. Ontario gave San Jose, the AHL’s third-best power play (27.3%), eight power plays, including a five-minute major power play. Although the Reign killed off 6-of-8 Barracuda power plays, they can’t afford to keep gifting power plays to a potent Barracuda power play in their next three meetings, or any team in general.
Intensity rises; playoff feel
Bad blood and tension. Somewhere along the lines, last season, the Reign and Barracuda developed a hatred for one another. That hatred has grown even more this season due to the Barracuda knocking the Reign out of the playoffs with a sweep in the opening round.
In the four meetings leading up to yesterday’s game, all the games have been intense and chippy. Last night was no different, even with the holidays around the corner. Cole Guttman got ejected because of an illegal check to the head match penalty on Sharks prospect Quentin Musty, and Kasper Halttunen high-sticked Taylor Ward out of frustration, to name a couple of moments. Not only was the game chippy, but there was a playoff feel to the contest that Lee even agreed was evident.
“Yeah, it did,” Lee said if the game had a playoff-like feel to it. “I feel whenever we play these guys, it’s always that intense.”
Lee also offered his opinion if we could expect more of that today and in the following two meetings after today.
“Yeah. It’ll be these types of games, but with less penalties,” Lee said.
NOTES:
*Glenn Gawdin extended his point streak to five games with his assist on Lee’s first goal.
*Lee recorded his fourth goal against the Barracuda in the season series with his two-goal performance.
*Isaiah Saville made 18 saves in the loss.
Super Savy to the rescue!👏👏 pic.twitter.com/YwJzXeqOVa
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) December 21, 2025
*Lee and Gawdin led all Reign skaters with four shots on goal each.
*Head coach Andrew Lord provided an update on goaltender Erik Portillo’s injury status. He said the netminder has been skating a ‘decent amount now’ and is hopeful his return is ‘around the corner.’
Andrew Lord on Erik Portillo’s injury status:
“He’s getting there. He’s skating a decent amount now. Hopefully, it’s around the corner, knock on wood.”
No timeline given except “Around the corner. Hopefully real soon,” he said.#GoKingsGo #ReignTrain
— Kyle Garcia (@Kopitar4HOF) December 21, 2025
UP NEXT: These two teams meet again this afternoon at Toyota Arena at 3 PM. It’s the second game of three straight meetings. You can watch the game on FloHockey or KCAL+ (channel 9.6). You can also listen to the game on the Ontario Reign radio network or the ESPN LA app.
Featured image credit: Megan Sanders/Ontario Reign
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