Podgorica, Montenegro - January 29 - The Men's Senior National Team continued their great to start to 2021 as they won the Podgorica Tournament in a thrilling 15-14 shootout victory over hosts Montenegro on Friday morning.
Alex Bowen,
Ben Stevenson,
Marko Vavic and
Max Irving each scored two goals in regulation to lead Team USA's offense while
Drew Holland and
Alex Wolf split time in the cage with Holland notching five saves and Wolf three.
Click here for stats from the game.
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Fresh off their victory over defending Olympic Champion Serbia, Team USA fell behind early as Montenegro opened the scoring but they regrouped and quickly responded with a power play goal from Irving and added two more later in the quarter as they took a 3-1 lead into the break. Montenegro would not be deterred though as they opened the second quarter with two goals to tie the game at 3-3. Team USA responded well though as they rattled off three goals with two coming from Bowen to regain a 6-3 advantage but Montenegro got back within two on a penalty shot with one second left in the quarter to make it 6-4 at halftime.
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Montenegro opened the scoring in the third as they narrowed Team USA's advantage to 6-5 but Team USA replied with a 3-1 run with two goals coming from Stevenson and one from Vavic as they restored their three-goal advantage at 9-6. Montenegro did not give up though as they closed the quarter with two penalty shot goals in the last 1:30 to narrow Team USA's lead to 9-8 going into the final quarter. Montenegro continued their momentum into the fourth as they quickly tied the game at 9-9 on a power play goal and then they look the lead with another power play goal to make it 10-9 with 5:35 left in the game. Trailing for the first time in the game and without a goal since the third quarter Team USA looked for an equalizer and finally found it when Irving fired home a goal with two minutes left to tie the game at 10-10. Both teams had several chances to score the game winner in regulation but both came up empty as the game headed to a shootout.
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Bowen opened the penalty shootout with a goal to give Team USA back the lead and they never trailed again as
Johnny Hooper, Vavic and
Hannes Daube all hit the back of the net. The shootout then went to a second sudden death round where Bowen scored again while Holland came up with a huge save of Montenegro's top scorer Dusan Matkovic as Team USA won the penalty shootout 5-4 and the game 15-14.
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Team USA went 5/12 on power plays and 0/1 on penalties while Montenegro went 3/6 on power plays and 4/4 on penalties.
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Scoring
USA 14 (3, 3, 3, 1) (5) A. Bowen 2, B. Stevenson 2, M. Vavic 2, M. Irving 2, M. Farmer 1, H. Daube 1 (A. Bowen 2, J. Hooper 1, M. Vavic 1, H. Daube 1)
MNE 13 (1, 3, 4, 2) (4) D. Matkovic 5, M. Mrsic 2, M. Petkovic 1, U. Vucurovic 1, S. Cetkovic 1 (D. Matkovic 1, M. Mrsic 1, M. Perkovic 1)Â
6x5 - USA - 5/12 - MNE - 3/6
Penalties - USA 0/1 - MNE - 4/4
Saves - USA - D. Holland 5 (1), A. Wolf 3 - MNE - P. Tesanovic 4, S. Kandic 4Â
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