The St. Louis Ambush kept their playoff hopes alive when they defeated the Milwaukee Wave 7-5 Sunday afternoon at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The win improved the Ambush to 8-11-2 on the season, while Milwaukee dropped to 7-12-1. Sunday’s victory was a reversal of Friday night’s game, which saw the Wave beat the Ambush on their home turf. The win also gave the Ambush a 3-2 advantage in the season series over the Wave. Perhaps even more important for the Ambush, they displaced Milwaukee in the eighth of eight playoff berths with three regular season games remaining.
Neither team scored in the opening period until the twelfth minute, when St. Louis scored twice within a minute. Vadim Cojocov scored off a pass from Marcel Berry, followed by Wil Nyamsi, who got off a shot that hit the crossbar and went into the goal. Sam Guernsey scored for St. Louis with a minute and a half remaining in the period to make it 3-0.
Milwaukee got on the board on a restart opportunity when Luan Oliveira sent a pass to Gordy Gurson, who navigated a difficult angle to put the ball in goal in the fourth minute of the second quarter. St. Louis regained their three goal lead when a shot by Lucas Almeida deflected off the board to Mo Ndiaye, who put it in the back of the net in the ninth minute of the period. Neither team scored for the remainder of the period, giving the Ambush a 4-1 lead at halftime.
Milwaukee went on a power play when St. Louis’ Duduca Carvalho was sent off for tripping in the tenth minute of the third frame. The Wave would make good on the opportunity when Oliveira scored to make it a 4-2 game. The Ambush answered when Guernsey was able to beat Milwaukee goalkeeper Joey Kapinos with just under two minutes left in the third quarter, which elapsed with St. Louis leading 5-2.
The Ambush increased the lead to 6-2 when Duduca settled a high pass from Jeff Michaud, turned and fired it into the goal in the third minute of the final stanza. Midway through the fourth quarter and with the sixth attacker in play for Milwaukee, Derek Huffman scored off a pass from Daniel Mattos to shave the Ambush lead to 6-3. The Milwaukee comeback continued when Ian Bennett executed a backheel shot into the net in the eleventh minute for a 6-4 score. St. Louis incresed the lead to 7-4 when they were awarded a penalty kick on a Milwaukee handball and JT Thomas put his shot out of Kapinos’ reach with just under two minutes left in the match. With five seconds left on the clock, Bennett scored his second of the match to make it 7-5, a score that would hold until the final buzzer.
The Ambush have three regular season games remaining, all against the cross-state rival Kansas City Comets, who have already clinched a playoff spot and are likely to win the Central Division laurels. On Saturday, March 26, the Ambush and Comets will square off at the Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence. On Saturday, April 2, the two teams clash again at The Family Arena in the regular season home finale for the Ambush. The regular season concludes for both teams when they meet at Cable Dahmer on Sunday April 3.
Tickets for the remaining Ambush home game is available at The Family Arena box office and at ticketmaster.com. Fans can stay current on all Ambush news by visiting the team’s official website, stlambush.com and on social media outlets.
