Saturday night featured some lacrosse after dark, as the late game saw the Las Vegas Desert Dogs welcome the Ottawa Black Bears to Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada. I’ll tell you now that the Desert Dogs snuck away with a 10-9 victory, but it certainly didn’t look like it was going to be that close for a vast majority of the game. Kudos to Ottawa for not rolling over and making it very interesting down the stretch.
The first quarter was all Vegas. The Desert Dogs scored four goals in the frame and completely shut down any Ottawa scoring opportunities. The first three of those four goals were scored by three of the bigger splashes in free agency this offseason, those being Tony Malcom, Mitch Jones, and Chase Fraser. Jonathan Donville joined the party to cap off a dominant first 15 minutes. 4-0 Dogs after one.
Las Vegas didn’t let their foot off the gas to begin the second. Ottawa seemed to settle in defensively; however, they were stifled on the offensive side of the ball. Fraser buried his second and Adam Poitras got his first, and this was starting to look like a runaway. Rob Hellyer finally broke through for the first Ottawa goal, but here came Vegas again, this time with three-straight courtesy of Donville, Jones, and Jackson Webster.
I’ll pause for a minute. Count up the Las Vegas goals, you should get nine. No, you’re not missing anything; Webster’s goal was the last that Las Vegas would score until the 2:20 mark of the fourth quarter. Ottawa completely flipped this game on its head, scoring the game’s next eight goals spanning 23+ minutes of game play. I’ll go in order, don’t worry. The Black Bears scored the final three goals of the second quarter to cut the deficit to five. Those goals were scored by Brent Noseworthy, Hellyer, and Connor Kearnan. 9-4 Desert Dogs at the break.
The third quarter saw three goals, again, all by Ottawa. They were scored by Reilly O’Connor twice, one at the 11:39 mark and the other at the 6:29 mark. The third goal was courtesy of Jake Stevens at the 6:16 mark. The times are provided to put into perspective how well Ottawa settled in and how stifling their defense was, all while spreading out their offensive output. Blink your eyes and it was now 9-7 Las Vegas after three.
Ottawa stayed hot to begin the third, as two quick goals had this one all tied up. The first was from Jeff Teat on the power play at the 13:23 mark. The other was from Larson Sundown, also on the power play, at the 9:18 mark. The next seven-ish minutes featured end-to-end action and a lot of stout play from both goaltenders. Las Vegas finally broke their scoreless drought when they were in dire need of one, as Chris Cloutier got his own rebound, patiently waited behind the net, fired a pass to Jones, who buried his third, and most important goal of the game. The Desert Dogs shut it down on defense the rest of the way and snuck out of their home arena with the win. Feel that? That’s still the wind in Nevada as the whole arena collectively exhaled.
Players of the game for Las Vegas were Jones (3+4), Donville (2+3), and Fraser (2+2). Landon Kells had a phenomenal first half, as well as the last nine minutes of the game. He made 47 saves on 56 shots. For Ottawa, Hellyer (2+4), O’Connor (two goals), and Teat (1+4) led the way. Zach Higgins really settled in after being given a bit of a breather, unfortunately coming up short. He made 33 saves on 43 shots in 56:50 of game play. Tyler Carlson stopped both shots he saw in his 3:10 of relief.
“The whole second half was tough sledding for us”, said Jones. “We just stuck with it, happy it could go in, just a team effort. I think we want to be a team that’s tough to play against at home, it’s a great step in the direction of us learning how to win games.”
Las Vegas looks to build off the win and maybe forget about the middle of this one. Their next crack at it is Saturday December 27th as they travel to take on the Toronto Rock. Faceoff in that one is at 7pm. Ottawa will look to use the middle of this game as a steppingstone in their next contest. The Black Bears travel back home to welcome in Philadelphia. That game is also on Saturday December 27th at 7pm.
