Singapore - July 22 - The USA Men's National Team worked hard to climb back from a large deficit but ultimately came up short against Croatia, losing 14-9 in the 5th-8th semifinal round earlier tonight.
Marko Vavic and
Chase Dodd had two goals each to lead the offense with
Adrian Weinberg recording eight saves in net. Team USA will close out play at the World Aquatics World Championships against Italy in the 7th place match on Thursday at 4am et/1am pt. Live streaming of all USA matches will be available on
Peacock (login required).
It was a low scoring affair to start as Croatia went in front 1-0 with 5:38 left in the first period. Team USA found the equalizer when
Marko Vavic tipped in a
Max Irving shot for a 1-1 game more than halfway through the quarter. Croatia followed with a goal and took a 2-1 lead into the second period. Croatia went up 3-1 in the second before
Dominic Brown squeezed a power play goal in on the near side for a 3-2 game with 5:13 remaining in the first half. From there Croatia went on a roll as they ripped off four straight goals in a little over four minutes to take a five goal advantage into halftime at 7-2.
Chase Dodd scored to open the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 7-3 as the United States looked to rally back. Croatia immediately answered with a score to go ahead 8-3, but Team USA still had a lot of fight left.
Hannes Daube scored, followed by a power play goal from
Max Irving and the margin was cut to three at 8-5 with 4:52 to go in the period. Croatia would prove tough to stop as they returned fire with two in a row to again lead by five, this time at 10-5 with 3:33 remaining in the period. Team USA got out the shovel and started to dig their way out of a hole once more as
Ryder Dodd and
Marko Vavic connected on power play strikes to get it back to 10-7 with play moving to the fourth quarter.
In the opening minute of the fourth
Chase Dodd found the cage and Team USA had gotten back to within two at 10-8. A pivotal moment arrived at the 5:34 mark of the fourth as Team USA drew a penalty, but the shot from
Hannes Daube was blocked by Croatia. That kept the margin at two and the United States would get no closer. Croatia seized all the momentum and ran off four straight goals to go ahead 14-8.
Jake Ehrhardt added a late score but Croatia took the victory 14-9.
Team USA went 5/11 on power plays and 0/1 on penalties while Croatia went 2/12 on power plays with no penalties attempted.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 9 (1, 1, 5, 2) C. Dodd 2, M. Vavic 2, H. Daube 1, J. Ehrhardt 1, R. Dodd 1, M. Irving 1. D. Brown 1
CRO 14 (2, 5, 3, 4) R. Buric 3, F. Lazic 2, L. Fatovic 2, M. Zuvela 2, K. Kharkov 2, Z. Butic 1, J. Vrlic 1, L. Bukic 1
Saves - USA - A. Weinberg 8 - CRO - M. Bijac 6
6x5 - USA - 5/11 - CRO - 2/12
Penalties - USA - 0/1 - CRO - 0/0
