In the only meaningless game of the week, the Charlotte Hounds defeated the Hamilton Nationals, 11-9. There were no playoff implications from this game with both the Hounds and Nationals not in the playoffs.
The Hounds dominated from the get go, starting out with a five to one lead after the first quarter. At the half they would still lead 7-5. It was a low scoring third quarter, with one goal for Charlotte and two for Hamilton, before the fourth.
Already leading 8-7, Charlotte scored two straight goals to start the fourth quarter. Hamilton scored two and sandwiched a Charlotte goal, and the Hounds would win by a two goal margin.
Charlotte got two goals a piece from Stephen Berger, Kevin Kaminski and Kyle Wimer. Adam Ghitelman played great in net, making eighteen saves on the Nationals.
Stephen Keogh had the only multi goal game for the Nationals with his hat trick. Joe Walters also had five assists. Brett Queener played the entire sixty minutes in net, where he made twelve saves.
The Nationals had twenty six shots on goal compared to the Hounds twenty three. The Nationals won the faceoff battle 13-10. Matt Dolente took the draws for the Nats and Jerry Ragonese for the Hounds.
Both teams had twenty nine ground balls each. Ragonese had five ground balls to lead the Hounds and Brodie Merrill had six for the Nationals.
Both these teams will have a say on who gets into the playoffs next week with the Nationals taking on the Lizards and the Hounds facing the Rattlers.
