It had a similar feel to Saturday night's 3-4 Game 1 loss.
"Too little, too late"
"Lack of urgency"
Goals coming quickly, one after another.
Something just not right.
It was the same recipe for Game 2 that it was for Game 1, and Lake Erie has done what no team has yet to do this post-season: Win two against the Reign. In fairly stunning fashion no less.
No matter how the Reign got here though, they are here now. They now embark on a three game set of the seven game series in Cleveland. If they want to get back to Ontario for Games 6 and 7 they will have to win at least two of three in the upcoming road trip.
Tonight's contest started with its own share of weirdness, as the Reign saw the unexpected return of Brett Sutter to the lineup. However, there was also a new insertion into the lineup alongside the previously injured Sutter, and it was Paul LaDue. LaDue, who had signed with the Kings on an ELC after his season ended with UND, did not get an opportunity to play with the Reign during the regular season. However, that did not stop Stothers from pushing the youngster into the lineup for Game 2 even though it was a highly critical and pressure filled game. Stothers reasoning, however, from a stylistic standpoint were sound.
"Realizing our opponent and how well they skate and how good they are at laying pucks in and now our defense have to go back and pick up a puck and there’s not a whole lot of time, why wouldn’t you want a guy that can skate as well as LaDue? I think we saw some of that tonight."
He also touched on how difficult a scenario it had to be for the 23-year old.
" I wasn’t expecting miracles from him. But he’s shown enough in practice with us that he can get around the ice and he can move the puck. I thought the start for him was real strong. Again, you go back to the fact that he hasn’t played in a long time. You kind of start hearing and it kind of drops off, the energy level. Maybe it will make him even stronger if he’s in the lineup on Tuesday."
Unfortunately for LaDue, it was he and the 4th line who got bested as Hannikainen opened the scoring for Lake Erie at the 7:40 mark of the first period.
After doing a great job preventing Lake Erie's Hannikainen from beating him on entry, LaDue (6 in the GIF) got caught watching the puck on the stick of Lukas Sedlak for a split second before Hannikainen drove by him in the center lane and tucked home a beauty feed from Sedlak.
It was a theme prevalent last night and again at the forefront of Game 2. The speed, drive, and opportunistic play of Lake Erie was in full force. Fans were not even done being deflated by Lake Erie's first goal when Sedlak, the facilitator on the first goal, got one of his own on a clear cut 2v1.
It was Lake Erie's second goal in 12 seconds, and it stemmed from another uncharacteristic error. Not only was Kevin Gravel beat on a pinch play to hold the opposition zone, the usually reliable Peter Budaj was beat 5-hole on a goal he would surely want back if given the opportunity to replay it.
You could hear a pin drop in Citizens Business Bank Arena as Lake Erie needed just 12 minutes or so to storm out to a 2-0 lead.
The 1st intermission did little to cool the quick skating Monsters, as the second period looked similar to the first in terms of stylistic difficulties for Ontario.
The Reign could do little in terms of offensive zone activation and aggression from center and defensemen without seeing a Lake Erie odd man attack spring to life back the other way. Few chances for Lake Erie were coming on a heavy cycle, it was mainly due to up ice transition, stemming from neutral zone break up plays or solid outlets from within their own zone. What ultimately turned out to be the nail in the coffin on the evening was T.J. Tynan's first of the playoffs, a powerplay goal, at 15:20 of the 2nd period.
While Ontario showed some push back, like last night, with goals from Paul Bissonnette and Kevin Gravel, it was not enough in the end.
The game, however, was not without last minute drama.
AGAIN, just like last night (Oh come on guys!), the Reign had a golden opportunity with the goalie pulled. Whereas last night it was Adrian Kempe getting beat by the post, tonight it was Michael Mersch getting stuffed on the doorstep, all alone, by Anton Forsberg.
Mersch admitted he was "Probably going to be thinking about that one a little bit but it was a good save by the goalie."
When the irony of it all was brought up to Stothers post game, he too was slightly amused at it
You guys are good tonight. You guys are really good tonight. Because yeah, we talked about that. I’m thinking to myself on the bench, I’m going, ‘My God, if I could pick a guy that I would want to have standing in front of the net with a puck tonight it’s Mike Mersch.’ So, yeah. They didn’t go in. They made good plays. We had some good looks. That’s just the way it goes.
With that, Lake Erie find themselves in a grand position to step on the throat of Ontario on home ice. They have played a good, structured, and opportunistic two road games to open this series in the best possible fashion. The end zone black hole* they have created against Ontario has kept plays to the outside, chances to a minimum, and have led to several high quality scoring chances utilizing their speed and excellent passes to space.
(*Black hole example from preview piece)
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Few teams have been able to utilize the combination of speed and defensive structure quite like Lake Erie has in order to jump out to some big advantages against Ontario.
The feeling from the Reign locker room post game was not really one of disappointment, but more of positive reinforcement mixed with a twang of frustration. The Reign have not played bad hockey overall, they have simply been punished when those mistakes have happened.
Paul Bissonnette summed it up well post game,
I don’t necessarily think we’ve played bad, it just seems that they’ve been very opportunistic, especially early in games. It seems like every Grade A chance they get’s in the back of our net. It’s good to see our will and compete level battling back, it’s just a little tough against teams, especially when you’re in the final four.
Mike Mersch also echoed the sentiment that while the games were loses, they didn't particularly feel out of reach.
Optimistic for sure because [the mistakes] can be cleaned up. We have a good team. We’re all really close with each other on and off the ice so we’re going to pull together and find a way to do this thing.
Turning Points
Last night it was the second period that really blew up Ontario, and tonight it was the first.
There was not a particular lack of energy out the gate, but there was a sense that Lake Erie was once again on their game. If the opening goal wasn't enough to put the Reign on their heels, the Monsters twisted the knife with a follow up goal 12 seconds after the first marker.
From that point forward the Reign certainly seemed to be chasing the game, with Lake Erie waiting patiently to pounce on opportunities on the counter. Every rush up ice seemed to drag the air out of the home crowd, as Ontario's attempt at chance trading in order to get back in the game seemed rigged by design.
(Right, Bodie?)
Key Stats
12 seconds
A harsh 12 seconds at that. It is clear what this is in reference to since it has been mentioned ad nauseum, but it was still a critical early point of the game.
13
The Reign had nine shots on goal in the 2nd period, but missed on a total of 13. There were also numerous blocks by Lake Erie, as the Reign failed to gain any traction in the center lane of the Lake Erie defensive zone. Most of the shots were coming from the halfwalls and above the circles simply due to some excellent structured defense from Bednar's troops. While the Reign got some openings here and there, they ended up pushing opportunities high and wide on a number of occasions. It was just another thing that may have compounded the frustration for Ontario as they tried to crawl back in.
0-2
The Ontario Reign under Mike Stothers have never been down 0-2 in a playoff series.
Key Players
The Lake Erie bottom six....again
They were on the key players list last night, and lo and behold they were a factor again tonight. The quick two goal strike for the Monsters was facilitated by that of third line center Lukas Sedlak. His excellent feed to Hannikainen was followed up by a 2v1 five-hole strike.
Aside from scoring, the Monsters bottom lines were again capable of hemming the Reign bottom lines in with food speed and tenacious puck pursuit. Sonny Milano was again a noticeable figure on the depth lines of Lake Erie.
Nic Dowd - Michael Mersch
If anything was happening for the Reign, it had these two involved. Mike Mersch logged five shots on the evening, while Nic Dowd was often the set up man and linchpin for those shots. Stothers turned heavily to the duo late in the game, and it seemed like they were out for practically the entire third period.
Paul Bissonnette
The rugged fourth liner scored his first of the playoffs on what was essentially a picture perfect kind of goal the Reign need to be searching for. A Joel Lowry feed down low was placed perfectly across from Kris Newbury for a center lane drive by Paul Bissonnette. It was a tap in play that was executed by the wingers willingness to crash in and exploit the open space.
Anton Forsberg
For the second straight night, Forsberg was not asked to make too many saves on really threatening chances, but when he was called upon to do so he passed with flying colors. A massive third period glove save on Kevin Gravel coupled with the last second denial of Michael Mersch ended up being big difference makers in maintaining a 3-2 lead. While his job was occupied by Korpisalo earlier in the playoffs, there seems to be no reason that Forsberg should relinquish that job given the performances put forth in the first two games.
Moving Forward
It's tough sledding for Ontario. Reality is they very well might have just played their last home game of the season. However, doom and gloom will get the team nowhere. There was positivity after the game despite the losses, and the Reign have faced adversity before and have come out the other side of it alright. While this is a different kind of adversity, expect a fight.
A young Lake Erie team must now take a look at what is in front of them and try to not get potentially nervous at the franchise's first Calder Cup Finals appearance. They have a glorious opportunity as the series now switches over to home ice for them, but a rugged Ontario team should give them all they can handle. Game 3 is slated for Tuesday night in Lake Erie, followed by Thursday, and Saturday for Games 4 and 5.
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