Photo: André Ringuette/Freestyle Photography/OSHC
The Ottawa Black Bears have shown signs of dominance — even maintaining it for quarters and halves at times — but are looking to put it all together for a full 60 minutes entering a Saturday night meeting with the Philadelphia Wings.
Entering Week 5 of NLL play, the Black Bears lead the league in goals scored, with 33, but are still looking for their second win of the season after a heartbreaking loss in Las Vegas last weekend. Ottawa erased an eight-goal deficit against the Desert Dogs but fell 10-9 after giving up the game-winner with just minutes to play.
Offseason trade addition Rob Hellyer is fitting quite nicely into the offence. His 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) lead not just the team, but also the league. Jeff Teat’s seven goals and 12 assists place him tied for third in league scoring entering play this weekend.
Meanwhile, Reilly O’Connor (four goals, nine assists), Larson Sundown (four goals, five assists) and Connor Kearnan (four goals) round out a quintet which has accounted for 27 out of those 33 goals.
Watch: You can watch every regular season NLL game on NLL+ free of charge (excluding NLL Friday Night on TSN). Tonight’s game will also be available on TSN+, and ESPN+.
The Opponent: Ottawa defeated Philadelphia 13-5 on the road last season. Saturday’s game marks the first visit to Ottawa for the Wings franchise, though the previous Wings iteration (1987–2014) visited in February 2003 to play the Rebel during their final season in Ottawa.
The Stat: Jeff Teat has scored 15 goals and 35 assists in just seven games against the Wings in his career (an average of 7.14 points per game). 18 of those points have come in the last two games he played against Philadelphia, both wins.
“Yeah, I mean, finishing the games the way we have is nice, but we need to start that way too. [Take the] desperation from the final two quarters of the game and move it into the first and second and we’ll be in pretty good shape.” — Rob Hellyer on the Black Bears’ slow starts and hot finishes
“It wasn’t lost on us that we had a good comeback there, but at the same time, we started off and we were down eight goals. So the message was pretty obvious: start on time and don’t take anybody lightly. Play to win right from the opening faceoff.” — Rob Hellyer on the messaging after the loss in Las Vegas
“It’s been easy, the offence is incredible, we move the ball very well. There’s not one guy on the floor that isn’t a threat, so it’s pretty simple to produce out there when we’re moving the ball well. It’s going well so far.” — NLL leading scorer Rob Hellyer on quickly finding his way as a Black Bear
This year, the Black Bears will play four Friday home games and five Saturday home games from November to April.
Next up is a Saturday home game against Philadelphia Wings on Dec. 27 at Canadian Tire Centre.
You can view the team’s entire schedule here, purchase Season Seats here, and Single Game tickets here.
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