Two teams with two-game winning streaks are set for battle Friday night in Denver as the Outlaws (4-2) get set to host Ohio (3-3) at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.
The game will be a rematch from week two of this season, a 14-13 win for the Outlaws at Ohio.
Denver attackman Michael Bocklet played the hero that day, scoring the game-winning goal with two seconds left.
The Outlaws, fresh off of a win against Chesapeake on Memorial Day, is looking to close in on first place as they sit two games behind New York.
Denver boasts the second best offense in the league, scoring just over 14 goals per game.
That offense is led by midfielders Drew Snider and Jeremy Sieverts, as Snider has 20 points (12 G, 8 A) and Sieverts has 19 (12 G, 7 A).
The Denver defense is giving up 12.6 goals per game. Matt Bocklet, Ken Clausen, Dillon Roy, Max Schmidt and Michael Simon comprise the core group of long-poles.
Simon has shown that he gets into the offensive side of things this season, scoring two goals, one of those being a two pointer, and adding an assist.
At the faceoff x, 11-year MLL veteran Anthony Kelly has taken all 182 draws this season, winning 110 of them. The team 60.4 win percentage is second best in the league. He won a career high 80 percent of his faceoffs the last time these two squared off.
Between the pipes for Denver will be Jesse Schwartzman. The Johns Hopkins Blue Jay has played in all six games for the Outlaws, as he has a goals against average of 12.89 and a save percentage of .497.
With the exception of last week’s game against Chesapeake, all of the Outlaws’ games have been decided by three goals or less.
Taking a peek at the Ohio side of things, midfielders Tom Schreiber and Peter Baum continue to lead the way. Schreiber has 12 goals and nine assists while Baum has 13 tallies and five helpers.
Baum did not play in the Machine’s 20-12 win over Florida last week due to injury.
Stepping up last week in that impressive offensive outburst was attackman Jimmy Dailey, who had four goals and midfielder Kyle Harrison, who had a game-high six points.
Harrison’s two, two-point goals helped him garner Warrior Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Ohio is sixth in the league offensively, scoring 12.6 goals a game.
Brian Farrell, Brian Karalunas, Jackson Place, Steven Waldeck and Dana Wilber are the defensive corps for the Machine. They have been slightly better than their counterpart, giving up 12.1 goals per game.
The man in charge of facing off against Kelly will be Greg Puskuldjian. Interesting to note that his win percentage is exactly 60.4 as well, although he has taken half as many draws as Kelly.
Puskuldjian won 23-32 last week against the Launch.
Brian Phipps is once again expected to man the crease for Ohio. The former Maryland Terrapin has played in every game for the Machine, has a goals against average of 12.17 and a save percentage of .552.
The game will feature two of the better man-up offenses in the game. Ohio and Denver are second and third, respectively, converting over 31 percent of their chances.
However, the teams are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to killing off penalties. The Machine have killed off 92.8 percent of their penalties, best in the league, while Denver has only killed 71.4 percent, second worst in the league.
Denver is undefeated at home this season, sitting at 2-0 while Ohio is 1-2.
Game time between the Outlaws and the Machine is set for 9 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN3.
