It’s been more than 700 days since the Outlaws (4-0) lost a regular-season game—and they’ll look to extend that streak when they face Charlotte on Friday night at Sports Authority Field.
Following an off week, Denver returns home to kick off a home-and-away series against the Hounds (1-3). Charlotte will host the Outlaws the following weekend. A win on Friday would give Denver its 25th straight regular-season victory.
The Outlaws are 4-0 against Charlotte all-time in regular-season games, but their last defeat came at the hands of the Hounds in the first round of last year’s playoffs.
Denver is coming off a win against the Rochester Rattlers led by John Grant Jr.’s six points on five assists and one goal. Eric Law scored twice in the contest, giving him 12 goals and 18 points on the season—both second best in the league.
Charlotte’s offense is led by attack men Mike Sawyer and Ryan Young who both have seven points on the season. Sawyer has netted six goals this year and Young has scored three times and assisted on four goals.
In goal, Pierce Bassett gets most of the minutes, and his 28 goals allowed ranks third amongst goalies with at least 100 minutes in net this season.
“On paper, they are awfully strong,” Denver head coach B.J. O’Hara said. “I think they finally will have a lot of their pieces in place. They have had people missing—as we all have—but certainly they have had some of their key guys in and out the lineup with other obligations.”
After dropping their first two games of the season, the Hounds finally picked up a win in Week 3. In their last game though, they were outmatched by Boston on the road. Denver may face a different team though—with the college lacrosse season done, the Hounds may add some new players to their roster.
“I presume they activated some of their really outstanding draft picks they have,” O’Hara said. “We will expect them to be at their best and I’m sure they will be and we’re going to have to be (at our best) ourselves.”