ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The Missouri Comets completed their sweep of the I-70 Series Friday night with a 10-5 win over the St. Louis Ambush. In the three games, the Comets outscored the Ambush 25-15. The Comets (17-0) are now the only undefeated team — after the Baltimore Blast lost 5-4 last night in Las Vegas — and are only three games from the first perfect regular season in MASL history. The loss drops the Ambush to 5-12.
For the Ambush, it was a familiar formula for defeat. The game was tight early, but things went from level to staring up at the Comets from the bottom of Mariana Trench in a hurry. Missouri poured in five unanswered goals, including four straight coming out of halftime.
The matchup everyone was looking forward to coming into the game was the scoring duel between Missouri’s Leo Gibson and St. Louis’ Gordy Gurson. Gurson came in leading the league in goals with 40 and tied for second in points with 55. Gibson led the league in points with 61 while sitting in fourth place with 32 goals. Gibson – like his team – dominated the game within the game. The Comet forward scored three goals and assisted on four more. Gurson, despite getting off seven shots, was not able to get on the board until the final seconds of the third quarter.
The Ambush actually took the first lead of the game off a Jeff DiMaria goal from David Paul. The Comets tied the score 1-1, after Anthony Arico’s “Welcome to the Ambush” moment came in the form of a two-minute boarding penalty. The Comet Captain, Vahid Assadpour scored on the ensuing restart off a pass from John Sosa for the equalizer.
From there, scoring came at a furious pace.
Gibson got his first goal of the game 42 seconds into the second quarter. While trying to kill the power play, the Ambush failed to clear the ball and Gibson got an open look in front of the net. Elvir Kafedzic tied the game once again on a shot off a restart that hit the Missouri wall of defenders and still trickled past the keeper. A beautiful ball from Gibson into Bryan Perez for a header gave the Comets a 3-2 lead. Assadpour’s second came off his own rebound and gave Missouri the first multi-goal lead of the game. The Ambush cut the lead back to one when Korey Dowell shot a ball off the wall that took a funny hop and bounded past the Comets’ goalie, Danny Waltman.
That would be as close the Ambush got the rest of the way.
Arico drew a two-minute penalty with 1:30 to go in the second and had St. Louis thinking tie going into halftime. Instead, Alain Matingou beat the Ambush down the left side and scored with 17.5 seconds left in the half – the third shorthanded goal allowed by St. Louis in as many games.
Coming out of halftime, the Comets continued to pour it on. Gibson assisted on goals by Kiel Williams, Matingou, and Brian Harris and scored a goal of his own to make it 9-3 in the Comets’ favor. Gurson finally stopped the bleeding with 33 seconds left in the quarter when he received a pass behind the Missouri defense and was able to bank a goal in off the left post.
In the fourth quarter, scoring slowed due in part to the lack of need for the Comets. Gibson did get his hat trick 3:20 into the quarter with Assadpour returning the favor on the assist. Odaine Sinclair finished off the scoring five minutes later on a give-and-go pass off the wall from Jeff DiMaria.
The Ambush’s latest acquisition, Anthony Arico, turned in a fairly impressive performance despite what is seen on the stat sheet. After the unfortunate early penalty, he settled in, creating multiple scoring chances and playing a largely error-free game the rest of the way. The highlight of his night came on the defensive end. Early in the third quarter, Arico took a ball out of mid-air on his own goal line to save a goal.
The Ambush are right back at it Saturday night when they go on the road to play the Tulsa Revolution (2-15). In their previous meeting at the Family Arena, Jan. 23, St. Louis set a season high in goals scored and margin of victory with their 11-5 win. Tonight’s game will kick-off at 7:05 p.m.
(Photo Credit: Scott Neer/ Missouri Comets)
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