Aatu Jämsen and Logan Brown scored 80 seconds apart early in the third period, erasing a 1-0 deficit and sending the Ontario Reign to a 2-1 win over Coachella Valley in Game 3 of the teams’ Pacific Division semifinal series on Tuesday night.
The Reign lead the best-of-five series, two games to one, with Game 4 coming up Thursday.
Jani Nyman put the Firebirds in front with 3:10 left in the opening period, taking a pass from Jagger Firkus off a rush and snapping a shot past Erik Portillo.
Ontario pulled even when Nikita Novikov made a nice play to keep the puck in at the blue line and Kenta Isogai forced a turnover. Jack Hughes quickly put a shot on net and Jamsen was alone in front to knock in the rebound with 14:04 left in regulation.
Brown then gave the Reign the lead with 12:44 to play. Joe Hicketts sent the puck the length of the ice to get Ontario a line change, but Glenn Gawdin got a piece of it at center ice to negate a potential icing and Brown beat everyone to the hard bounce off the end boards and wired a shot inside the far post. It was the second goal of the series for Brown, who scored once in 31 regular-season games for the Reign.
Portillo (1-1) made 27 saves in net for Ontario; Nikke Kokko (3-3) stopped 22 shots for Coachella Valley.
(Ontario leads series, 2-1)
Game 1 – Wed., Apr. 29 – Coachella Valley 3, ONTARIO 0
Game 2 – Fri., May 1 – ONTARIO 5, Coachella Valley 1
Game 3 – Tue., May 5 – Ontario 2, COACHELLA VALLEY 1
Game 4 – Thu., May 7 – Ontario at Coachella Valley, 10:00
*Game 5 – Sat., May 9 – Coachella Valley at Ontario, 9:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern