New York Riptide end home drought

The New York Riptide finally sent its fans home happy.

Jeff Teat scored his fourth goal of the game with just under two minutes remaining and goaltender Steve Orleman had a strong 39 saves and helped fend off a feverish Toronto rush in the final seconds to help the Riptide win at Nassau Coliseum for the first time this season, 14-13 over the Rock on Saturday night.

Callum Crawford had four goals and two assists, including his 1,100th career point, and former Rock Damon Edwards added a pair of scores and helped set up the winner for New York, which won its second home game in franchise history while snapping a seven-game drought at the Coliseum. The other came in a 13-12 overtime victory against Georgia on Jan. 18, 2020.

“It feels really good to win at home,” coach Dan Ladouceur said. “Getting that first one was really important for us and we did it with a bit of a broken roster, we did it with some adversity, so it was really rewarding.”

The Riptide were poised for a more comfortable victory by maintaining a 13-10 lead with just under six minutes left, but Toronto rebounded with three goals in a span of 2:09 to tie it. East Meadow native Tom Schreiber began the rally with his third goal of the contest with 5:58 left and Rob Hellyer brought the Rock to within one 45 seconds later before setting up Reid Reinholdt’s equalizer with 3:49 remaining.

But just under two minutes later, Edwards gathered a loose ball in his own end and darted down the left-wing side before finding Teat, who beat Toronto goalie Riley Hutchcraft down low for the eventual game winner. Forward Keith McArdle had a key pick to give Teat more space for his shot.

“Cards did a great job of hustling up the floor, did a lot of work without the ball,” Teat said. “Damo had the ball and made me a great feed and Cards gave me a lot of separation,” Teat said. “I had the easy job of shooting the ball with a lot of hard work from those other guys.”

Toronto almost tied the game again in the final minute. Forward Dan Craig rifled a shot off the crossbar with 53 seconds left and Riptide defenseman Darryl Robertson blocked Reinholdt’s one-timer with 12 ticks remaining before Orleman stopped Schreiber’s 25-foot attempt as time expired to seal the victory.

“Just keep the ball out of the net,” Orleman said of the final flurry. “In those moments, you don’t want to get too high or too low, you want to stay level and I think our whole team did a really good job of that tonight.”

Teat added three assists and leads all rookie scorers with 33 helpers and 50 points while tying Buffalo’s Tehoka Nanticoke for first among all freshman with 17 goals.

The teams, which had never faced each other before this season, will complete the home-and-home series this Saturday in Toronto. The Riptide return home on March 26 for “Lacrosse is for Everyone” night against the Albany Firewolves.