Zagreb, Croatia - February 7 - The USA Men's winning streak to start 2021 ended at three games as they fell 14-10 to Croatia in the final game of their series on Sunday in Zagreb.
Ben Stevenson and
Max Irving led the way on offense with three goals each while
Alex Wolf came up big in the next with 14 saves.
Click here for stats from the game.
Click here to re-watch the game. Next up Team USA heads to Ostia, Italy for training and a tournament against Spain and Italy from Feb 8-14.
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It was a slow start for both teams in this one as neither found the back of the net until halfway through the quarter when Croatia opened up the scoring with back to back goals as they took a 2-0 advantage. Team USA fought back though as
Max Irving continued his hot streak scoring his first goal to make it 2-1. From there Croatia took control as they rattled off three straight goals to take a 5-1 lead before
Alex Bowen found the back of the net to pull Team USA within 5-2 at the end of the first. After Croatia made it 6-2 to start the quarter
Hannes Daube scored off a great turn of his defender to make it 6-3. The teams would then exchange goals as Croatia took a 7-4 lead at halftime.
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Team USA tried to narrow their deficit in the third as they quickly got back within 7-5 on a goal from
Marko Vavic. It wasn't to be though as Croatia had an answer scoring twice to take a 9-5 lead. Team USA closed the quarter on a 2-1 run with both goals coming from Stevenson to get back within three goals at 10-7 at the end of the third quarter. Team USA didn't give up as they opened the fourth quarter with a thunderous goal from
Alex Bowen and a counterattack goal from Irving as they pulled back within one at 10-9. Once again though Croatia had an answer as they scored twice to restore their advantage back to three at 12-9. Irving followed that up with another goal but it was all Team USA could muster as they fell 14-10.
Team USA went 3/8 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while Croatia went 5/8 on power plays and did not attempt a penalty.
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ScoringÂ
USA 10 (2, 2, 3, 3) B. Stevenson 3, M. Irving 3, A. Bowen 2, H. Daube 1, M. Vavic 1
CRO 14 (5, 2, 3, 4) A. Vukicevic 4, L. Fatovic 3, L. Bukic 2, X. Garcia 2, M. Jokovic 1, L. Loncar 1, A. Buslje 1
6x5 - USA - 3/8 - CRO - 5/8
Penalties - USA - 1/1 - CRO - 0/0
Saves - USA - A. Wolf 14
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