Riptide Fall To Swarm

UNIONDALE, NY – Pat Saunders scored two goals in his New York Riptide debut but it was not enough as the Riptide fell to the Georgia Swarm 11-7 on Saturday night at NYCB LIVE.

Saunders, signed earlier in the week by New York (1-12), also notched an assist in the loss. He got the scoring started 4:48 into play and captain Dan MacRae put the Riptide up 2-0 with 1:45 to go in the first quarter. Georgia (7-4) answered in the closing minutes of the second quarter after a defensive battle to make it 2-1 New York heading into halftime.

Dan Lomas found the back of the net just 1:21 into the third frame to give the Riptide back a two goal lead, and the rest of the third proved to be a back-and-forth battle as each team would take turns scoring. New York held a 6-4 lead going into the final quarter, but Georgia opened with two goals in the first 1:33 of the frame to tie it up and then outscored the Riptide 5-1 over the closing 10 minutes.

In addition to Saunders’ three points, Connor Kelly (one goal, two assists), Travis Longboat (one goal, two assists) and Tyson Gibson (one goal, two assists) each added three points. Dan Lomas had one goal and an assist while Kieran McArdle had two helpers.

Lyle Thompson led the Swarm with seven points on two goals and five assists while Randy Staats had six on one goal and five helpers.

In net, Gowah Abrams made 44 saves for the Riptide in just his second start, including 13 in the second quarter. Mike Poulin recorded the win for the Swarm and had 44 saves.

New York will be in action next on Sunday, March 15 when they travel to Philadelphia to take on the Wings. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center.