San Diego, CA - July 1 - The USA Men concluded a three-game series against Montenegro tonight with an 18-16 loss in San Diego. Marko Vavic and Ben Liechty scored three goals each while goalkeeper Bernardo Herzer tallied nine saves. The match featured a retirement celebration for Olympic bronze medalist Alex Bowen who also scored his final goal for Team USA in the contest. The United States will welcome Italy to Northern California for another three-game series beginning next Wednesday, July 8 at UC Berkeley's Spieker Aquatics Complex with a 7pm pt start time. That game will stream LIVE on Overnght with LIVE stats on 6-8 Sports.
Montenegro struck first in this one to take an early lead. Team USA turned to Vavic from five meters for its first goal before the visitors went up by two with a pair of scores. With under two minutes left in the quarter, Liechty and Chase Dodd leveled the score prior to a Montenegro conversion on a penalty shot to give them a 4-3 lead after one.
In the second period, Montenegro scored first before Dominic Brown, Vavic, and Connor Ohl strung together three straight scores for a one-goal lead. The Montenegrins returned the favor with three consecutive goals to go back up two and then Ryan Ohl cut the deficit in half for Team USA. After another goal from Montenegro, the Americans turned to Alex Bowen on the counter attack where he beat the goalkeeper and brought back The Chop to bring the score to 9-8 at the half.
Just over one minute into the third quarter, Montenegro widen its lead but Liechty had a response for the United States. The visitors and Liechty traded goals again before two straight scores pushed the Montenegrin lead out to three. Team USA stayed composed and fought back with another run of three consecutive goals, this time from Hannes Daube, Nicolas Saveljic, and Jack Larsen to knot the score. Late in the quarter, a Montenegro goal gave them a 14-13 edge after three.
The game began to slow down in the final frame as defense picked up both ways. Vavic leveled the score early on the counter attack but Montenegro put together yet another three goal run to push in front for good. Brown and Daube each scored late with a Montenegro goal in between to solidify an 18-16 win for the visitors.
Team USA went 8/16 on power plays and 2/2 on penalties while Montenegro went 4/5 on power plays and 3/3 on penalties.
Scoring - Stats
USA 16 (3, 5, 5, 3) M. Vavic 3, B. Liechty 3, D. Brown 2, H. Daube 2, A. Bowen 1, C. Dodd 1, J. Larsen 1, C. Ohl 1, R. Ohl 1, N. Saveljic 1
MNE 18 (4, 5, 5, 4) A. Ukropina 5, N. Moskov 4, A. Macic 3, B. Vuckovic 2, M. Perkovic 1, V. Radovic 1, Ð. Stanojevic 1, J. Vujovic 1
Saves - USA - B. Herzer 9 - MNE - I. Radovic 6, D. Ðurovic 2
6x5 - USA - 8/16 - MNE - 4/5
Penalties - USA - 2/2 - MNE - 3/3
