2023-2024 Season:
The Wings secured a massive win in Week 4, traveling up to Halifax to play the Thunderbirds. Philly hung around all game, weathering the runs from Halifax, and took advantage of their chances, to sneak out of Canada with a 16-15 overtime victory. Jack Jasinski emerged as the hero of the night, collecting the ball off a broken play in overtime, diving across the crease, with the ball hitting the back of the net before he eventually landed in. Joe Resetarits made history in this contest with one goal and six assists, moving him ahead of Casey Powell with the most points scored by an American-born player in the NLL. The seasoned 11-year veteran in the league orchestrated the final assist for Jack Jasinski’s overtime game-winner, capping off the record-breaking evening with 676 total points in his illustrious NLL career and still counting.
The Riptide are still in search of their first win of the season as they enter this contest 0-3. Jeff Teat had his best game of the season against the Rock last weekend, with three goals and three assists, but ultimately, it was not enough to knock off one of the top teams in the league. The Riptide pieced together a positive second half but buried themselves in too deep of a hole in the first half to complete the comeback. Newly acquired Stephen Keogh made a quick impression, scoring a highlight goal between his legs with his back turned to the goal in his first game with his new team.
Notable Trends:
Ron John has collected six loose balls in each of the first three games of the season to go along with six caused turnovers, which is tied for first on the team.  Through 37 games in his career, Jeff Teat has registered at least 2 points or more in every game he has played in his career. Reilly O’Connor is on a 47-game point streak as well that dates back to the first game of the 2020 season. In his 5 career games against Philadelphia, Larson Sundown has scored a goal every time he has faced them and compiled 15 points in those 5 games.
Since Mitch Jones was traded to Philadelphia on January 31st, 2023, He has scored at least 4 points in every game he’s played in with his new team. Through 16 games, Mitch has compiled 117 points with the Wings which is on average 7.3 points per game.  In His 10th season, Zach Higgins is saving the ball at 78.1 %. Throughout his career, he has only been under 75% for one season when he played for the Georgia Swarm in 2016. Â
Milestone Watch:
After not playing in the last game, Riptide face-off man Jay Thorimbert still sits just 34 face-off wins away from 3,000 in his career, an accomplishment that has never been done in NLL history. Connor Kearnan is sitting just one assist shy of his 100th in his career. Kearnan has nine assists on the year so far, which is first on the Riptide. For the Wings, Joe Resetarits broke Casey Powell’s all-time points record by an American-born player last week and now sits 4 assists shy of 400 in his career. Joe would become the first American-born player to ever record 400 assists. Additionally, for the Wings, Chad Tutton needs seven loose balls in order to reach 600 in his career. Tutton spent the first six years of his career with Georgia but had his best year in the league with Philadelphia last year, setting career highs in Caused Turnovers, Loose Balls, and Assists. Ben McIntosh is also just 5 points shy of breaking 600 points in his career. The 32-year-old had four points against the Riptide in their first matchup.
Where to Watch:
The Riptide and Wings will kick off their second matchup of the season at 3:00 PM on Sunday, January 7th at the Wells Fargo Center. The game will be available to watch on ESPN+ as well as TSN+. If you are not able to attend the game or watch, follow along on the Riptide’s Twitter and Instagram @newyorkriptide  for live in-game updates along with pictures and videos from the contest.
