Idaho Steelheads Report: Previewing the Ontario Reign

Hubert Labrie (Credit: Idaho Steelheads)

John Mulhern gives us a look ahead at the Ontario Reign, second round opponent for the Steelheads.

The Idaho Steelheads defeated the Colorado Eagles (St Johns Ice Caps) last Friday night in a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory as Andrew Carroll got the game-tying goal with a nice deflection on the power play with just under three minutes remaining and then scored the game winner and series clinching goal just 1:40 into the extra frame. Chase Schaber continues to come up big in pressure situations as he and Tyler Gron worked a good cycle before Schaber made the pass out front to Carroll for the slam dunk goal.

Bonus Hockey

The Steelheads hosted three games in the first round and all 3 of those games resulted in overtime. Interestingly enough, despite the extra periods, the teams only played about one extra period of hockey, in terms of minutes, during the length of the series. In game one the Steelheads scored less than a minute in to win that game. Game two saw the Eagles score with about 2:30 minutes left and as mentioned the Steelheads scored 1:40 into OT in game 6.

The Steelheads have now advanced to the second round of the Kelly Cup playoffs 4 straight years. The last time they got out of the second round was the 2009-2010 season when they made a run to the Kelly Cup Finals.

Waiting for the Steelheads in the second round (Western Conference Semi-Finals) are the second seeded Ontario Reign (Manchester Monarchs). The Reign swept the Utah Grizzlies in 4 games to advance to the second round and only allowed a total of 6 goals over those 4 games. They scored a total of 16 goals in those same 4 games.

The Steelheads went 5-3-1 against the Reign during the regular season. They were 3-1 at home and 2-2-1 on the road. Those are great records considering that the Steelheads will have to start on the road for games 1 & 2 this Friday & Saturday before coming back to Boise for game 3, 4 & 5 (if nec.). By the time the second round starts, Ontario will have been off for 12 days and the Steelheads will have had 6 days off.

Top First Round Performances:

Ontario:

8 Players registered at least 1 goal

Kyle Kramer 2g 5a 7 points

Derek Couture 1g 5a 6 points

C.J. Stretch 5g 0a 5 points (Currently in OKC with the Barons)

Nick Ebert (D) 2g 2a 4 points +6

Matt Register (D) 0g 2a 2 points +4

Brock Sheahan (D) 0g 0a 0 points +3

Jean Francois Berube 4gp 4W 0L 1.46 GAA .939 sv %

Idaho: 

12 Players registered at least 1 goal

Adrian Foster 2g 6a 8 points

Tyler Gron 3g 4a 7 points

Austin Smith 5g 1a 6 points

Austin Fyten 2g 4a 6 points

Matt Case (D) 1g 5a 6 points +2

Gord Baldwin (D) 0g 1a 1 point +3

James Isaacs (D) 0g 0a 0 points +4

Tyler Beskorowany 4gp 3W 0L 2.38 GAA .911 sv %

Josh Robinson 3gp 1W 1L 1OTL 4.06 GAA .888 sv %

Power Play:

Ontario went 3 for 21 good for 14.3%

Idaho went 4 for 23 good for 17.4 %

Penalty Kill:

Ontario went 15 for 15 good for 100%

Idaho went 20 for 26 good for 76.9 %