Bucharest, Romania - January 11 - The USA Men's National Team dropped their second straight match at the World Aquatics World Cup Division 1 competition in Romania, falling to Croatia 15-6 earlier today. Six different scorers found the net for Team USA with Bernardo Herzer going the distance in net to record 13 saves. Team USA will close out play tomorrow against Georgia in the 7th place match at 7:30am et/4:30am pt. The match will stream LIVE in the United States via
Recast PPV on the World Aquatics website with
live scoring available courtesy of World Aquatics.
Croatia jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first before
Max Irving got Team USA in the mix with a tally to draw within one at the 6:30 mark in the the first. After Croatia went up 5-1 in the high-scoring opening frame, Team USA battled back with goals from Nicolas Saveljic and Ben Liechty to get within two at 5-3. That would be as close as the match got the rest of the way as Croatia surged to the end of the period with two more goals for a 7-3 lead after one. In the second quarter they blanked Team USA while delivering three scores of their own to secure a 10-3 edge at intermission.
The scoring slowed in the second half with just three combined goals in the third quarter.
Chase Dodd opened the third with a goal but Croatia answered with two straight for a 12-4 lead going to the fourth. It was a similar story in the final quarter, Team USA opened the scoring courtesy of Alex Oprea, but Croatia would respond with three of the next four goals to win this one going away 15-6.
Team USA went 1/6 on power plays and 0/1 on penalties while Croatia went 2/4 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 6 (3, 0, 1, 2) N. Saveljic 1, B. Liechty 1, A. Oprea 1, C. Stanley 1, C. Dodd 1, M. Irving 1
CRO 15 (7, 3, 2, 3) J. Marinic Kragic 4, M. Zuvela 3, V. Pavlic 3, K. Kharkov 3, M. Susic 1, F. Lazic 1
Saves - USA - B. Herzer 13 - CRO - T. Popadic 12
6x5 - USA - 1/6 - CRO - 2/4
Penalties - USA - 0/1 - CRO - 1/1
