When: Saturday, June 14 @ 9:00 pm EST
Where: @ Denver
The Denver Outlaws suffered their first loss in over 700 days last weekend in a 18-15 loss to the Charlotte Hounds. The New York Lizards also lost last weekend as they fell to the Florida Launch 11-8. As the two teams face off in Denver this weekend, whose losing streak will continue, the Lizards or Outlaws?
Offense
Denver boasts one of, if not the best offense in the MLL. In their first six games they have scored 14, 14, 10, 14, 13 and 15 goals. Therefore, it is no shock that they are 5-1 and once again find themselves at the top of the league. Eric Law has blossomed in his second season in the MLL as he leads the team with 25 points. The Outlaws also boast four others players who have double digit points as Jeremy Sieverts (19 points), John Grant Jr. (17 points), Drew Snider (14 points) and Chris Bocklet (14 points) all have 14-plus points for the Outlaws this season.
Finally, Denver boasts the league’s best shot and shot on goal percentage with percentages of 29.8 and 63.5 respectively.
Meanwhile, New York was thought to have one of the best offenses in the league when the season started after adding Matt Striebel and Ned Crotty in the offseason and bringing back a healthy Max Seibald. However, their offense has been held to under 10 goals twice this season in losses to Rochester and Florida.
Rob Pannell and Crotty lead the charge from the attack position as they have 19 and 13 points respectively to lead the team. Seibald has 12 points from the midfield spot while Striebel and and Jo-Jo Marasco chip in with nine and eight points thus far.
Lastly, the Lizards have a shot percentage of 27.4 percent and a shot on goal percentage of 60.9 percent. Those numbers rank fourth in the MLL.
Defense
For both of these teams, the success of the defense starts in goal where two of the game’s best players man the crease. Team USA goaltenders Jesse Schwartzman and Drew Adams are arguably the top two goaltenders in the MLL. Schwartzman boasts a league-leading save percentage of 60.7 and a 9.18 goals against average. On the other hand, Adams has a 52. save percentage and a 11.29 goals against average. While those numbers rank towards the lower end of the MLL, this is more of a product of a subpar defense in front of him.
The Lizards don’t have a true defense as they are a crew of long stick midfielders. Brian Karalunas and Kyle Hartzel are two of the game’s better defenders but both are at their best from up top. Both also are ground ball machines as they rank in the Top 15 for ground balls. Joe Fletcher might be their only true down low player but he is a rookie.
For the Outlaws, they return the game’s best defender in Lee Zink and one of the game’s best long poles in Matt Bocklet. Bocklet ranks seventh in the league in ground balls with 28 but ranks second in terms of faceoffs not from faceoff men. Zink will shut down the team’s top player and should draw Pannell this game, which will be an interesting match up one of the games rising stars with the games best defender.
Faceoffs
This battle at the faceoff X will be an all-time clash between two of the best faceoff men to possibly have ever played the game. Denver’s Anthony Kelly is 85-of-155 so far this season while Greg Gurenlian is 97-of-160 and boasts the league’s best faceoff percentage. Don’t be surprised is both players cancel each other out at the faceoff and it turns into a constant 50-50 battle in the middle of the field.
Prediction
New York has been up and down all season and really needs to win as they are 3-3 on the season and a loss could push them towards the bottom of the league. Denver is pretty safe but has been dominant in the regular season and there is something about their home field advantage of playing in Denver’s air that can’t be duplicated in practice. Give me the Outlaws as they get back to their winning ways in the regular season.
Denver 14, New York 11