The New York Riptide (6-10) stormed out to a 6-0 lead in the second quarter and never looked back on their way to a 15-7 win over the Rochester Knighthawks (3-13) in the final meeting of the season between the intrastate rivals Saturday at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The Rochester offense was led by forwards Curtis Knight (2+2), Mike Burke (2+1) and Thomas Hoggarth (1+2), who combined for nine points (5+4) as Rochester dropped its eighth straight. Ryan Smith (1+1), Holden Cattoni (0+2) and Turner Evans (0+2) all racked up two points on the night, while Ryland Rees (1+0) tallied a goal to complete the scoring.
Goaltender Joel Watson (0-6) made his sixth straight start in the crease for the Knighthawks but suffered the loss as he made 26 saves. Netminder Lukas Coote (0-0) made his third appearance of the season with Rochester, facing six shots over 11:45 of relief effort.
Rookie forward Jeff Teat led New York’s offensive output with his 10-point effort on three goals and seven assists, while forward Jake Fox recorded a four-goal effort. Forward Dan Lomas (2+0) had two goals on the night, while Kieran McArdle (1+3) and Connor Kearnan (1+3) both tallied four points on a goal and three assists each. Former Knighthawk Darryl Robertson registered a pair of assists to also earn a multi-point effort.
What a shot by Ryland Rees 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Z8bP5CkqkG
— Rochester Knighthawks (@RocKnighthawks) April 17, 2022
Netminder Steve Orleman (6-9) made his 15th appearance in the crease for the Riptide this season, pushing his win total to six on the year with a 36-save performance.
Teat, the NLL’s leading rookie point-getter, factored in on five of his team’s first six goals on the night, beginning with an assist on each of New York’s four first-quarter scores to help the Riptide take a 4-0 lead.
After Rochester fell into trouble early following consecutive penalties, New York would capitalize with Lomas opening the scoring on the power-play to ignite a six-goal for the Riptide at the 9:25 mark.
New York added three more goals in a span of 2:27, including a pair from Fox, to take a 4-0 cushion into the start of the second.
The Riptide carried the momentum into the start of the second quarter as they scored twice in the first 55 seconds for a 6-0 advantage.
Rochester got on the board with Knight’s first of back-to-back tallies in the second at the 2:49 mark from Burke and Hoggarth.
3️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ career points!
With his assist on Curtis Knight’s second goal tonight, Holden Cattoni recorded his 300th career point! Congrats, Holden 👏 pic.twitter.com/qxI37MMgx6
— Rochester Knighthawks (@RocKnighthawks) April 17, 2022
The Riptide took a 7-1 lead before the Knighthawks closed out the scoring in the half as Knight and Burke both scored just 34 seconds apart to trim the score to 7-4.
While New York came out with another goal from Teat to kick off the second half, the Knighthawks pulled within three on back-to-back tallies from Rees and Hoggarth.
Although the Knighthawks chipped into the deficit to come within three, the Riptide went on a five-goal run to take a commanding 13-5 advantage at the 5:09 mark of the fourth quarter.
Curtis Knight puts us on the board! pic.twitter.com/DGS1Z1ECr7
— Rochester Knighthawks (@RocKnighthawks) April 17, 2022
The teams then exchanged goals before Fox capped off the scoring with 3:03 left in regulation.
The Knighthawks return home on Friday, April 22 to take on the Calgary Roughnecks for the only time this season at Segar & Sciortino Field at The Blue Cross Arena. The matchup gets underway at 7:00 p.m. and will be carried live on The Bull 107.3 FM as well as ESPN+. Fans can stay up to date all season long with the latest news, stories and notes at www.rochesterknighthawks.com.