Revenge has been served.
After losing to the New York Lizards (1-2) in the season opener, the Denver Outlaws (1-2) picked up their first win of the season with a 16-12 victory over the Lizards at Mile High Stadium in front of the Outlaws faithful.
The Outlaws pushed the pace of the game with multi-point performances from attackmen Eric Law (4 goals, 2 assists), Matt Kavanagh (5 goals, 1 assist) and Shawn Evans (2 goals, 3 assists).
With his six-point night, Kavanagh is now sitting at the top of the scoring race with 14 goals, and is tied for the league-lead in points with 19.
“With the good offense that we have, the points will just come,” Kavanagh said, ” I think that my shot is just falling right now. You never know when you can hit a cold streak, but I am feeling it right now and most importantly we got the win tonight”.
With the victory, Outlaws goaltender Jack Kelly would finish the game making 13 saves.
Following a goal-filled first quarter for each team, the Outlaws clamp down on the Lizards defensively — allowing only one goal to slip past Outlaws goaltender Jack Kelly. While being able to limit the Lizards chances, the Outlaws went on a two-goal scoring run to head into halftime with a 6-5 lead.
Carrying some momentum into the second half, the Outlaws came out firing with a five-goal scoring run in the third quarter, including a two-point goal from Outlaws midfielder Romar Dennis, and to end the quarter with Kavanagh scoring a goal with five seconds remaining, giving the Outlaws an important 12-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“I know there wasn’t much time left in the quarter, but I didn’t realize how much time was left on the shot clock,” Kavanagh said, “we had a pretty good possession, so I looked up and saw that we only had five seconds remaining, so I just made a move, got my hands free, and let it go.”
The Lizards would begin breathing down the Outlaws neck, going on a four-goal scoring streak to cut into the Outlaws lead.
Despite the Lizard’s scoring run, the Outlaws defense stiffened late — limiting the Lizards to only one goal in the final seven minutes of the game.
With the Outlaws limiting the Lizards chances, the offense got to work to outscore the Lizards by a four to one margin to come away with the victory.
” I think that we did a really good job winning faceoffs tonight,” Tom Kelly would win 61.2% (19-of-31) of his faceoff attempts tonight, ” and I thought that we did a good job of getting long possessions to tire down the Lizards defense.”
The Outlaws will head out on the road for a quick turnaround as they will travel to Florida to take on the Launch on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.
