The Long Island Lizards held on to their third place position in the MLL standings with a victory over the Charlotte Hounds last night. With the win, the Lizards maintain their one game lead over the Boston Cannons and Rochester Rattlers who are both tied for the fourth and final playoff spot. Led by Matt Gibson (2 g, 2 a) the Lizards were able to distance themselves in the fourth quarter and come out with the win.
Charlotte led 7-6 at the half, but went into the fourth quarter tied and then gave up five goals in the fourth quarter. The Hounds were out-shot 32 to 17 during the course of the game, largely in part to winning only 9 of 26 face-offs. The Lizards’ Greg Gurenlian (The Beast) is one of the top face-off specialists in the league and came to the game ready to win. Jerry Ragonese gave it his all for the Hounds, but wasn’t able to best Gurenlian. A few weeks ago Charlotte traded for face-off specialist Geoff Snider, but Snider hasn’t been able to play yet due to his coaching the Canadian U-19 team.
Charlotte had trouble getting points from their big players last night, and didn’t have any player have more than two points during the game. The Lizards were able to hold Matt Danowski, Jovan Miller, Billy Bitter and Stephen Berger to a combined five goals. Without the help from the big-name players, the rest of the Hounds seemed to be unable to settle down and play smart lacrosse. Even the younger stars for the Hounds had trouble finding the back of the goal; Jeremy Boltus (who went down with an injury), Josh Amidon, Justin Turri and Kevin Kaminski were held to a combined one goal.
Goalie Adam Ghitelman was able to stop 19 of 32 shots, but Charlotte’s defense was not able to keep the Lizards from shooting and scoring. The Hounds’ defense seemed lost and confused at times during the game and especially during the fourth quarter when they allowed five goals. They allowed the Lizards to get close to the goal many times which typically ended up leading to goals.
Matt Gibson led Long Island in scoring with four points and a hat-trick from Brian Langtry really helped to propel the Lizards to the win. Eight different players scored for the Lizards, who needed this win to avoid falling into a tie with the Rattlers and Cannons. Long Island was able to put 32 shots on the goal which was a big help in tiring out Adam Ghitelman.
Drew Adams was able to overcome an off-night and secure the win despite saving just 8 of 17 shots. The Lizards’ defense did a great job shutting down the Hounds’ offense and keeping them away from the goal. Charlotte wasn’t able to penetrate often and suffered because of the Lizards’ good defense.
With just two games left in the season, the Lizards have no room to relax before playoffs. They are only one game ahead of the Rattlers and Cannons and could easily slip out of the race if they were to lose and both Rochester and Boston were to win. Long Island plays the top seeded Chesapeake Bayhawks next week and close the season on the road against the Hamilton Nationals.
The Hounds have been eliminated from the playoffs, but are still playing for pride and for the fans. The Hounds’ last two games are both very winnable games, against the Nationals and Rattlers. They could very easily play spoiler to the Rattlers if they can secure a win when they come to town on the 11th of August.
