Overtime losses are the worst; and sadly for the Charlotte Hounds (1-3) an overtime loss on Friday added to their slow season start. The Hounds traveled to Hamilton, Ontario to take on the still undefeated (3-0) Hamilton Nationals but lost 16-15 in overtime. Face-off specialist Matt Dolente won the first overtime face-off and run the ball down the field, shot and scored it by himself to end the game. In the first quarter, Charlotte looked tired and outmatched, as they were down 5-2 at the end of the first. But then Charlotte woke up and scored seven goals in the second quarter to take a 9-8 lead into halftime. Hamilton was able to hold the Hounds to just one goal in the third and then allowed two goals late in the fourth to force overtime.
Hamilton’s Joe Walters (3g, 2a) led the team with five points in the game, amidst a very balanced scoring effort from several offensive guys. Kevin Crowley (2g, 2a), Stephen Keogh (4g) and Kevin Cunningham (1g, 3a) each had four points for their team. Face-off specialist turned game winner Dolente won 16 of 33 face-offs against the Hounds’ Tim Fallon to finish just under 50% for the game. The Nationals had two goalies in cage, both of them playing half of the game. Evan Kirk had five saves and nine goals on 14 shots on goal to give him a 36% save rate in the game. Brent Herbst got credit for the win as he also had five saves and five goals against but stopped 50% of the shots on goal.
For Charlotte, midfielder Peet Poillon led the way with four points (3g, 1 2-pointer) and Jovan Miller also added a hat-trick. Two rookies playing in their first MLL game added goals for the Hounds; Mike Sawyer of Loyola scored a goal and added two assists in his debut and attackman Shayne Jackson of DII School Limestone scored a goal. Eric Lusby had a productive day for Charlotte (2g, 1a) as did goalie Adam Ghitelman (0g, 2a). Despite having two assists, Ghitelman struggled while he was in goal. Against 23 shots on goal, Ghitelman stopped seven of them to give him a 30% save ratio, his lowest of the season. Face-off specialist Tim Fallon has really come on strong as of late, and that continued in Friday’s loss as he won 18 of 34 face-offs and also added a goal and an assist.
In action next week, the Hamilton Nationals will travel to Ohio to take on the (0-3) Ohio Machine. For Charlotte, they’ll have a bye week before they have to travel to New York to take on a tough Lizards (2-2) team.
