ONTARIO, CA. — Ontario Reign goalie Erik Portillo finishes with 26 saves to lift the Reign to a 2-1 overtime victory over the San Jose Barracuda Tuesday night at Toyota Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ontario (6-3-1-0) has faced San Jose (3-5-1-0) three times in the past five days. The Reign took a trip up north for a 6-1 win Halloween night. The Barracuda got even and beat Ontario 4-2 on November 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s game was a defensive duel and San Jose\u2019s first period defense seemed to have Ontario a bit lost.<\/p>\n
San Jose was consistently getting their sticks into the passing lane, breaking up Ontario\u2019s passes and not allowing them to take many shots as the Reign spent a lot of time in the defensive zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams were scoreless in the opening period, but Ontario had only three shots on goal to San Jose\u2019s eight shots on goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to give them (San Jose) credit,\u201d Ontario coach Andrew Lord said in postgame interviews. \u201cSan Jose really battled, they were hard along the walls and we were aggressive, they made it difficult on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Akil Thomas scored his third goal of the season just 5:53 into the second period, with help from Francesco Pinelli and Jack Millar.<\/p>\n
San Jose would continue to remain scoreless because despite their defense, Portillo was at the goal for Ontario and wasn\u2019t letting anything past him.<\/p>\n
When asked about Ontario\u2019s defense, Portillo said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s our identity. It (has) been in the past and I think it should be with this team as well. We are a team that plays really hard defensively and I think we\u2019re currently finding that identity now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Igor Chernyshov scored a game-tying power-play goal eight minutes into the final period.<\/p>\n
The game would end in a 1-1 tie before the 3-on-3, five-minute overtime period commenced.<\/p>\n
Taylor Ward scored the game-winning goal just 1:03 into overtime, giving Ontario its sixth win of the season.<\/p>\n
Portillo is now 8-1 against San Jose. He had a season-high 36 saves against the Barracuda in Friday\u2019s win and only allowed one goal in both games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys were happy (about the win)\u201d Lord said. \u201cObviously to give the one up there in the third to go to overtime isn\u2019t great but I really liked our resiliency after that goal. I thought the boys saw it through and you could tell the desire was really there.\u201d<\/p>\n