The Chicago Mustangs scored a come-from-behind victory over the St. Louis Ambush Sunday afternoon at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The win improved the Mustangs’ record to 4-0, while leaving the Ambush (0-4) still searching for their first mark in the win column. It was the second time in as many days that the Mustangs defeated the Ambush. The two teams played Saturdaynight at the Family Arena and Chicago came away from that match with a 7-4 win.
Chicago got on the board first with Miguel Vaca’s power play goal just over five minutes into the game. The Ambush would respond with the next two goals to take the lead. Daniel Berko, who was all over the field during the opening stanza, scored the equalizer, followed by Corey Adamson’s first tally of the season, to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period.
The Mustangs drew even at 4:06 of the second quarter when their leading scorer, Taylor Bond, posted his ninth goal of the season. The Ambush took the lead at 7:55 on a beautiful sequence where a Richard Schmermund shot hit the glass above the crossbar, rebounded to Chris Mattingly, who headed it to Corey Adamson, who was centered in front of the goal. Adamson kicked the ball out of mid-air and over the head of Chicago goalkeeper Jesus Flores to give the Ambush a 3-2 lead. Chicago tied things up again when Edwin Rojas beat Ambush goalkeeper Nikola Marojevic with 4:55 left in the quarter. The see-saw battle continued when Carlos Contreras gave the Ambush a 4-3 lead when he found the back of the net with less than a minute to go in the half.
Following seven goals in the first two periods, the third quarter was unusually quiet, as neither team managed to score.
The Ambush went up by two (5-3) when Contreras scored his second of the game early (1:20) into the final quarter. The home team put pressure on the visitors late in the fourth quarter (10:47) when Oswaldo Rojas scored to make it a 5-4 contest. With just under two minutes remaining on the clock, Bond scored his second of the match to knot the score at five each. The score held until the end of regulation play, sending the duel into a ten-minute sudden-death overtime period.
Chicago only needed 2:20 of overtime to seal the victory when Miguel Vaca sent a backheel pass to Luis Ortega, who fired a shot that solidified the 6-5 victory for the undefeated Mustangs.
Flores made 19 saves on 24 save opportunities in earning his fourth win in goal for the Mustangs. Nikola Marojevic minded the net for the second time this season for the Ambush and saved 14 on 20 attempts, a performance worthy of a victory, but it wasn’t to be on this day.
Next for the Ambush is their first trip of the season to Milwaukee when they face the Wave next Saturday, December 3 at 7:05 p.m. at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The Ambush return home when they welcome the expansion Florida Tropics for the first time ever Friday, December 9 at 7:35 p.m. at the Family Arena. Season, single game and group tickets are available for all remaining home games .For more information, call the Ambush office at 636-477-6363. Keep up to date with Ambush news by visiting the official website, stlambush.com, the team’s Facebook page and on Twitter and Instagram.
