Ontario Reign's Kenny Connors Scores Goal With Blade Missing From Skate

Martin Chromiak fed Kenny Connors into the right circle 4:06 into Wednesday's game against Abbotsford, and what happened next was less hockey play than controlled chaos. The puck hit Connors' right skate and knocked the blade clean out of the boot. Rather than whistle for a stoppage, play continued. Connors worked the puck to his forehand from his backside on the ice and swung it low past the right leg of Jiri Patera. Goal.

The Ontario Reign won 3-1 at Toyota Arena in front of 6,044 fans, but it was that first-period sequence that immediately went viral, drawing a Reddit thread titled "Ontario Reign Kenny Connors loses blade and still scores the goal" and prompting the team's own social accounts to post the clip with the caption "CONNORS GONE CRAZY."

For Connors, the goal was more than a novelty item. It snapped a 16-game drought at the AHL level and counted as his 10th of the season. The 23-year-old then added an empty-net goal with 15 seconds left in regulation, assisted by Nikita Alexandrov, to seal the final score at 3-1 and give him his second multi-goal game of the year. His season totals now sit at 11 goals, 32 points, 96 shots on net and a plus-16 rating across 54 appearances.

The rest of the scoring unfolded simply enough. A scoreless second period gave way to Koehn Ziemmer's 10th goal 4:27 into the third, a sharp turn-and-release through the five-hole off feeds from Alexandrov and Kenta Isogai that made it 2-0. Abbotsford pulled Patera with 4:09 remaining to create a six-on-four power play, and Ty Mueller converted from the high slot with 3:45 left to make it a one-goal game. The threat lasted all of three minutes and 30 seconds before Connors buried the empty-netter.

Pheonix Copley was solid throughout, stopping 24 of 25 shots to improve to 6-1-1 in his last eight starts. Ontario held a 29-25 shots advantage.

Ziemmer scored for the second straight night. Alexandrov collected two assists for his ninth multi-point game of the season. The win extended Ontario's point streak to 11 games.

Connors' place in the lineup has always been defined by reliability rather than flash. Yardbarker described him as a second and third-line center deployed in all situations, including late-game minutes to protect leads. Earlier this month he appeared in two NHL contests with the Los Angeles Kings, logging five shots and three hits. Wednesday he just happened to score one of the stranger goals the AHL will see this season while sitting on the ice without a functional skate.

Ontario's next game is Friday at 5 p.m. PST against the Iowa Wild at home.