Irvine, CA - June 28 - The USA Men lost to Montenegro tonight, 18-17, in the second match of a three-game series between the two nations. Marko Vavic scored four goals while goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg recorded seven saves in net. Team USA will face Montenegro one more time on Wednesday, July 1 at UCSD's Canyonview Aquatic Center with a 7pm pt start time. That game will feature the retirement ceremony for Olympic bronze medalist Alex Bowen and stream LIVE on Overnght with LIVE stats on 6-8 Sports.
Ben Liechty picked up where he left off in the opening game with the first goal of this contest to give the United States an early lead. Montenegro answered to tie the game and then Vavic hit his first of the night. Another Montenegrin answer gave way to Dylan Woodhead scoring on a quick redirect, Ryan Ohl doubling the American lead, and Dominic Brown forcing a timeout after three straight scores. Montenegro got two back to close the quarter and Team USA held a 5-4 edge after one.
Montenegro continued its run into the second period with another three goals to make it five in a row for the visitors. That led Dejan Udovicic to call timeout and regroup which proved successful after Brown and Liechty each scored to knot the score up at 7-7 at the half.
In the third quarter, defense went to the wayside as thirteen total goals were scored. Montenegro poured in eight of those goals while Nicolas Saveljic, Vavic (2), Brown, and Ryan Ohl found the back of the net on the other end for Team USA leaving the score at 15-12 in favor of Montenegro heading into the final frame.
The Americans made a push in the fourth quarter beginning with two goals from Chase Dodd and continuing with Hannes Daube and Ryan Ohl. After two Montenegrin goals, Vavic took advantage of a power play opportunity to tie things at 17-17 with 1:22 left to play. From there, the game came down to the wire and Montenegro scored with 0:01 remaining to claim victory in the second game of the series, 18-17.
Team USA went 8/18 on power plays with no penalties attempted while Montenegro went 3/7 on power plays and 2/4 on penalties.
Scoring - Stats
USA 17 (5, 2, 5, 5) M. Vavic 4, D. Brown 3, R. Ohl 3, C. Dodd 2, B. Liechty 2, H. Daube 1, N. Saveljic 1, D. Woodhead 1
MNE 18 (4, 3, 8, 3) A. Ukropina 5, S. Gojkovic 4, M. Sladovic 2, J. Vujovic 1, Ð. Radovic 1, V. Radovic 1, T. Perov 1, D. Stupar 1, B. Vuckovic 1, M. Perkovic 1
Saves - USA - A. Weinberg 7 - MNE - D. Ðurovic 8
6x5 - USA - 8/18 - MNE - 3/7
Penalties - USA - 0/0 - MNE - 2/4
