The St. Louis Ambush lost an 8-7 overtime contest to the Cedar Rapids Rampage Saturday night at the Family Arena. The loss dropped the Ambush to 3-16 on the season, while Cedar Rapids, fighting for a playoff spot, improved to 9-9.
St. Louis was the first to score, at 7:11 of the first quarter, when a shot by Hewerton bounced off the board in the direction of Jerjer Gibson, who headed it into the goal. The Ambush went on a power play when Bobby Hurwitz was sent to the penalty box for boarding when he slammed Lucas Almeida into the wall at 9:55. The home team capitalized on the opportunity when player/coach Hewerton fired a long shot into the back of the net from beyond the arc at 10:17 to make the score 2-0. Cedar Rapids got a power play chance of their own when officials charged Dylan Hundelt with tripping at 12:05. The Rampage got their first tally on Victor France’s power play goal at 13:17. The visitors drew even when Gordy Gurson scored off a pass from goalkeeper Rainer Hauss at 14:56 and the first period expired with the score tied 2-2.
Dylan Hundelt scored the go-ahead goal for the Ambush when he caught Hauss out of the goal at 2:46 of the second quarter. Phibo Arriaga answered for Cedar Rapids at 5:11 to knot the score again. The Ambush took a 4-3 lead when Hauss deflected a shot by Hewerton, but Robert Acosta was able to head the deflection into the net at 8:07. Pablo Da Silva earned a trip to the penalty box for striking Gordy Gurson at 10:07, giving Cedar Rapids another power play opportunity. Less than a minute later (10:38) Alex Bradley scored to tie the game at 4-4.
The Rampage took their first lead of the match when Bobby Hurwitz was left open and scored off pass from Gurson at 12:05. The teams headed to the locker rooms for the halftime break with Cedar Rapids leading 5-4.
The Ambush tied things again when JT Thomas executed a wall pass to Dylan Hundelt, who scored his second of the night 33 seconds into the third quarter. St. Louis took a 6-5 lead using the same strategy with two different players. Jerjer Gibson used the wall to send the ball to Axel Duarte, who scored at 4:37. The back and forth continued when Hurwitz caught Paulo out of the goal and scored at 6:55 to tie the match 6-6. The Ambush would take back the lead (7-6) when Joao Pepe sent a pass to an open Corey Adamson, who fired a missle of a shot into the goal at13:56.
The first tally of the fourth quarter would be an equalizing goal from Cedar Rapids when Arriaga notched his second of the contest at 8:53 to make the score 7-7. Neither team scored in regulation, sending the match into sudden death overtime. At 3:18 of overtime, on a restart, Gordy Gurson sent a pass to Joshio Sandoval, who was left open and was able to score easily to nail down the win.
Next on the Ambush schedule is two road games next weekend against the same team. OnFriday, February 16 and Sunday, February 18, the Ambush collide with the Syracuse Silver Knights at the Oncenter War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, New York. Following the weekend series in Syracuse, the Ambush return home to the Family Arena for their final game of the 2017-18 season when they host the Monterrey Flash on Sunday, February 23 at 3:05 p.m. CT.
