Warriors Look to Bounce Back against Black Bears in Ottawa
NLL Vancouver Warriors

Warriors Look to Bounce Back against Black Bears in Ottawa

Published on January 22, 2026 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Vancouver Warriors News Release


A motivated Warriors team are back on the road as they take on the Ottawa Black Bears on Friday, January 23, after a close 11-9 loss against the San Diego Seals last week. This will be the first of two games on the road with the Warriors back home at Roger's Arena next month.

This will be the third time the Warriors face the Black Bears since the team's relocation from New York at the end of the 2023-24 season and will be one of two meetings for these two teams during the regular season. The last time these teams met was in Vancouver, which saw an impressive offensive performance from the team, including a six-point (3G, 3A) night from Adam Charalambides, and a five-point (1G, 4A) night from forward Keegan Bal. In the 8-4 win, the Warriors set a franchise record in only allowing four goals against.

The previous game against the Seals highlighted this group's ability to find ways to keep themselves in the fight, and while it ended in a loss, it provided strong evidence of a group with a high level of compete and care. The Warriors saw themselves down 4-1 at the start of the second quarter, but did not waver, as they climbed back from a three-goal deficit to eventually end the quarter just one goal behind. Charalambides had the hot stick in the quarter, scoring two goals, with forwards Bal and defenceman Reid Bowering scoring a goal each, the Warriors trailing 7-6 at the half.

The final minutes of the fourth quarter were an exciting affair, with the Warriors going into the quarter down 10-7. What seemed like what would be a comfortable win for the Seals abruptly changed with a quick succession of scoring from Bal and young forward Marcus Klarich, who scored a mere eight seconds apart from each other in the last 1:04 of play, and brought the Warriors to only a one goal deficit. Unfortunately, what would have been a game-tying goal by Curtis Dickson was overturned due to inconclusive evidence if he had dragged his foot across the crease. The Warriors battled hard in the final seconds, but were unable to equal the scoring, leading to only their second loss of the season.

The Black Bears are coming off a close 10-9 win against the Buffalo Bandits in Buffalo, where they played a well-rounded game, supported by a strong goaltending performance by netminder Zach Higgins, who stopped 45 of 54 shots and was 83.33% in the crease. They now sit at a record of 4-3 and are sixth place in the league at only two places behind Vancouver.

Forward, and current Black Bears point leader Jeff Teat had another strong night and contributed significantly to their win, registering seven points (5G, 2A). Rob Hellyer, who is ranked second on the team in points and goals, also had a seven-point night (2G, 5A), with the two forwards accounting for most of the goals scored during the game. The Black Bears were also able to capitalize on the power play, scoring two goals on the man advantage out of four available opportunities and currently have a powerplay success percentage of 48 percent.

The Warriors will be in Ottawa's Canadian Tire Centre for ball drop at 4:30 p.m. P.T. You can watch the game live on TSN, TSN+ and NLL+.

With NLL+ you can re-watch highlights and full games throughout the season, and you can sign up for NLL+.

Check out the Vancouver Warriors Statistics

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