Photo: John Matthew Harrison
A building known as the ‘Loud House’ did not live up to its name during the fourth quarter of a Saturday contest between the Colorado Mammoth and the visiting Ottawa Black Bears.
Black Bears goaltender Zach Higgins was perfect for the final 26:45 of regulation, allowing a season-low five goals on the night. Higgins, helped by a stout effort from the Black Bears defence, kept his team in the game until that fourth quarter, when it was time for another airing of the Jeff Teat Show.
Teat, who had tied the game at five back in the third quarter, scored three goals in a span of 1:50 of game time and recorded his second natural hat trick of the season. With the win, the Black Bears equalled their win total from last season (eight) with five games still to play. The Mammoth fall to 9-4 with the loss.
“He’s incredible,” said Teat about Higgins to sideline reporter John Gallant after the game. “He’s the backbone of our team, and he’s so focused, he wants to win. And you should be interviewing him here, not me.”
All four of Teat’s goals were courtesy of assists by Rob Hellyer, who finished with five in total on the night. Teat finished with three assists of his own, Reilly O’Connor and Connor Kearnan both had a goal and an assist, Sam Firth matched a career high with three assists, and Larson Sundown scored two power play goals.
“They’re a great team, and for us it just took a while to figure them out,” said Teat. “We’re a pretty resilient group that feeds off each other late in games, and never stops believing. So that was kind of the recipe tonight.”
The team allowed the Mammoth to capitalize on their first three power plays, but then killed off three straight. Callum Jones once again led the group with 10 loose balls, and added a caused turnover. Brent Noseworthy scooped eight loose balls and caused two turnovers, while Jake Stevens also scooped eight balls.
Stevens caused a turnover early in the second quarter and took it all the way to the house, scoring for the second game in the row and setting a new career high with four goals on the season.
Matt Marinier added his second goal of the season with an empty-netter, sealing the game with just over two minutes to play.
For head coach and general manager Dan MacRae, the visit to Denver was the first since he left the Mammoth for the Black Bears in the offseason. He coached the Black Bears to the franchise’s first-ever win in the Loud House. With the win, the Black Bears have also extended a franchise-record win streak to four games.
The Black Bears continue a three-game road swing with a trip to Calgary next Saturday. With the win over the Mammoth, they improve their road record to 4-2. “Yeah, road games are tough, right, it’s not going to be perfect,” said Teat.
“I think we’ve just got to find our identity every single time and rely on what we’re good at and be prepared for anything.”
This year, the Black Bears will play four Friday home games and five Saturday home games from November to April.
Next up at home is a Saturday meeting with Georgia on March 28 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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