Gale Thorpe tied the game with 1.7 seconds to play and Dan MacRae scored the game winner 2:10 into overtime to give the New York Riptide their first win in franchise history on Saturday night at NYCB LIVE.
The Georgia Swarm (2-3) opened the scoring 11:43 into the first quarter, but the Riptide (1-5) answered right back nine seconds later when Scott Johnston scored on the ensuing faceoff for his first as a member of the team. Just under three minutes later Kieran McArdle found the back of the net for his first of the night and put New York up 2-1 to end the first.
McArdle, a Ronkonkoma, N.Y. native, scored again 4:51 into the second to give the Riptide a 3-1 lead. However, Georgia would then rattle off seven consecutive goals before Tyson Gibson broke the New York drought 9:43 into the third. Gibson scored again just under two minutes later to put the score at 8-5. However, Georgia picked up another goal in the final minute of the third to make it 9-5.
Jean-Luc Chetner found the back of the net just 22 seconds into the fourth to cut the lead to three before Lyle Thompson picked up his second of the night for the Swarm 4:30 into the frame. The next six minutes were all Riptide, as the team came back to take a 11-10 lead with 4:06 to play. In that span, McArdle secured his hat trick, Dan Lomas scored a hat trick and Cody Radziewicz also found the back of the net.
Lyle Thompson had two goals in 20 seconds to put the Swarm up 12-11 with 2:03 to go before Thorpe tied it up.
Travis Longboat had six assists to lead the Riptide in points while Lomas (3 goals, 2 assists) and Tyler Digby (5 assists) each had five. Gibson had two assists to go along with his two goals for five points.
Shayne Jackson led the Swarm with six points on three goals and three assists. In net, Alex Buque had 37 saves for the Riptide to secure the victory while Mike Poulin had 35 in the loss for the Swarm.
The Riptide will be in action next on Friday, January 24 when they travel to Philadelphia to take on the Wings. Game time is set for 7 p.m.