Orlin & Cohen Post-Game Report: Riptide drop 22-14 game to Toronto

Eleven points from Jeff Teat and a 4-5 performance on the power play wasn’t enough for the New York Riptide on Saturday night as they fell 22-14 to the Toronto Rock. Reilly O’Connor and Brett Hickey each had 6 point nights, and Kevin Brownell had 2 points to go along with 9 loose balls.

Corey Small opened the scoring for Toronto with a 5 hole shot, although Teat responded quickly for New York, beating Nick Rose from the point on the power play. The Rock scored the game’s next 3 goals before Larson Sundown got one back for the Riptide off a feed from Teat, his 100th career assist. After the Riptide successfully challenged a Toronto goal, Tyler Digby made it a 4-3 ball game, and the first quarter ended with this as the score.

Teat tied the game early in the second with a breakaway goal following a stretch pass from Jay Thorimbert, however, this would be short lived as Toronto scored the next 5 to make it 9-4, with Gowah Abrams replacing Steve Orleman following the 8th Rock goal. However the Riptide gained some momentum going into the locker room with late goals from Connor Kearnan and Teat, and it was just a 9-6 deficit at the half.

Kearnan continued the Riptide run to open the second half, however Toronto scored the next four goals of the game before Teat got his fourth of the night, a long range snipe on the power play. Steven Keogh quickly responded for Toronto, and Orleman returned to the Riptide net. Challen Rogers and Teat traded goals, and then Latrell Harris found the back of the net in transition to give Toronto a 16-9 lead heading into the final stanza.

The Riptide came out hot in the fourth quarter, first when Kearnan finished his hat trick, and then Brownell intercepted a pass and went coast to coast for his third of the season to cut it to 16-11 before Brad Kri got his own coast to coast goal for the Rock. Toronto added another through Tom Schreiber, but Digby answered for New York with a twister in close, however Toronto scored the next 3 goals of the game to put it out of reach. Brett Hickey scored two late power play goals, but it was too little too late for the Riptide as they dropped their second straight game.

The Riptide return to action on Saturday, February 11 against the Albany FireWolves at Nassau Coliseum, with opening faceoff set for 7:30 PM. The game will be available to watch on ESPN+, and listen to on WRHU 88.7 FM, WRHU.org and the WRHU iPhone App. Live stats and periodic in-game updates will be available via Twitter @NewYorkRiptide.