Riptide, Teat finish strong

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The New York Riptide entered the 2022-23 National Lacrosse League season with playoff aspirations, but the negatives outweighed the positives and all that remained for the finale was a potential scoring title for Jeff Teat and closing on a high note.

It was mission accomplished times two Saturday night when Teat led the Riptide to a come-from-behind 16-8 victory at Vancouver. New York exploded for 12 second-half goals and the second-year star had a hand in nine of them to become the NLL’s scoring champion with 136 points, four more than runner-up Dhane Smith of Buffalo and just one off the all-time single-season mark.

As he entered the locker room following the game, Teat was doused by water bottle wielding teammates.

“We coulda mailed it in and had fun,” Teat said of the finale. “We did our best to go out there and end our season on a high note.”

The Riptide, which finished 5-13, trailed Vancouver by three goals late in the second quarter but dominated thereafter behind Teat, who finished the campaign with 56 goals and 80 assists. Connor Kearnan was also unstoppable in the win, registering four goals and five assists. Matt Marinier and Reilly O’Connor added a goal and three assists apiece.

“He’s always performed at the top of his game and to come into this league and start smashing records and put himself in category leading across the board, it’s pretty special,” Riptide head coach Dan Ladouceur said of Teat.

While Teat, who last season recorded 108 points as a rookie, was busy making NLL history, teammate Curtis Conley scored his first professional goal. Conley capped a 6-0 third-quarter run that turned the Warriors’ 5-4 halftime lead into a 10-5 deficit for the hosts.

The win and Teat’s individual accomplishment capped an otherwise disappointing season for a New York team picked by many to breakthrough and make the playoffs in its third year as a franchise. Only Albany (3-15) and Vancouver (4-14) finished with a worse record.

Kearnan finished the season as the Riptide’s second-leading scorer with 30 goals and 75 points. O’Connor had 20 goals and 65 points. Scott Dominey and Ron John each had 20 takeaways to tie for the team lead. In goal, Steve Orleman had 3 wins and 486 saves; Cameron Dunkerley 2 wins and 223 stops. In the finale at Vancouver, Orleman dazzled with a career-best 57 saves.

The Riptide started 0-4 and never recovered to get into serious playoff contention. It’s first victory came in Week 8 of the NLL slate over Albany. It beat the FireWolves two more times and also knocked off Philadelphia.

Along the way, New York traded Callum Crawford in a Jan. 18 blockbuster with Panther City and received three players and three draft picks in exchange for the 17-year veteran and four-time All-Pro forward who had 88 points last season.

“Everything is building towards something here,” Ladouceur said. “We had a slow start but at the half we asked for another inch, another percent from everybody. And in the second half everybody coughed it up.”